Payback time for Facebook father
FACEBOOK founder Mark Zuckerberg has written a letter to his newborn daughter in which he tells her to get outside and play.
“The world can be a serious place. That’s why it’s important to make time to go outside and play,” he writes to baby August. Ah yes, I can already hear little August’s reply in 13 years’ time: “Oh bore off, Dad. I’m not going outside – I’ve got to filter 20,000 selfies of myself pouting in a crop top, finish uploading pictures of my Shreddies, get another 40,000 likes for my make-up contouring secrets vlog, block those ugly cows who didn’t share my poignant girl power quote of the day, then nick a load of pictures off someone else’s Facebook page to make it look like I’m hanging out somewhere exotic. I haven’t got time to go outside, Dad, I’m too busy pretending that I am outside.” And I guess it will only be at that moment that daddy Mark realises the magic spell of childhood has been burst. And that he has done more than his fair share to pierce it. Three quarters of UK children spend less than an hour outside each day – less than prison inmates.
A quarter of kids spend less than half an hour a week playing outside. And one in nine of our kids hasn’t set foot in a park, forest, beach or other natural place for a year.
Meanwhile, teenagers are spending up to 27 hours a week online.
And even though many youngsters have moved from Facebook onto more hip social media sites, 94% of them still have a Facebook account.
Anyone bringing up kids right now knows it is a running battle against the forces of technology. My 13-year-old would merrily while away his summer holiday gazing at a screen given half the chance.
Yet when with a mixture of moaning and brute force I drag him into the outside world, he ends up having more fun than anything the online world can offer.
But technology is addictive. It has ensnared a generation of young minds – and enriched its creators beyond all imagination. Creators like Mark Zuckerberg, who is now giving away billions of dollars to make the world better for youngsters growing up.
But as Mark himself will soon learn, no amount of money makes up for a constricted childhood.
Teenagers spend up to 27 hours a week online