Do you think people are missing out when raised in too controlled environments?

[wufwugy]

Here's how I grew up: In as rural as it gets in a temperate rain forest. I knew every kid within a mile radius. We spent the summers on dirt bikes miles away from home with no supervision. We had tales about everything. One part of the forest we never went, because that's where a killer lived. There was the Mink Farm, a scary ass overgrown rotting building lined with empty cages that took a half hour of hiking to get to. There was the Beaver Pond, took a half hour of dirt biking to get to, where the older kids would boast about taking their (non-existent) girlfriends to. There was once a dead elk carcass for weeks at our bus stop.

Acres and acres of dense forest, with grasslands, swamplands, all sorts of different trees, homes or other structures laid throughout. Every kid who lived on or near these acres, we banded together and played epic games of capture the flag. Or we made weapons and built forts and battled each other. When it got too dark, we'd go play video games. Where and which game depending on who had what game at what time. Or we'd build campfires and light our farts and sleep under the stars.

What happened to this region 25 years later? It's all suburbs. Nobody knows anybody else, just houses lined in a row. Nobody waves, nobody stops to talk, nobody plays with anybody else, few go outside. What are the kids living there doing now? Probably texting.

Sometimes I wonder about this.