Childhood 2.0

Childhood 2.0

2020, Health  -   10 Comments
8.04
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Ratings: 8.04/10 from 78 users.

The lives of children used to be filled with hours of outdoor frolic, morning paper routes, and boundless adventures of the imagination. How times have changed. Childhood 2.0 characterizes our modern generation of kids and teens as enraptured victims of the information age.

While older generations might have learned the value of outside stimulus, household chores, and in-person playtime with friends, the youth of today have fallen prey to smartphone screens and video game consoles. Some might argue that subsequent generations have always been unfavorably compared to the ones that came before. But this current trend of endless distraction has created a monster. Episodes of depression and suicide are on the rise among children, juvenile diabetes is at an all-time high, and the lack of engagement has put a hamper on their social skills and mental health.

Online dangers are rampant, and the rapid pace of innovation is proving much too difficult for parents to patrol effectively. Many children spend the same amount of daily hours on their phones as adults do in their workplace.

According to the panel of child counselors and psychologists interviewed in the film, this device dependence results in a constant barrage of low-grade anxiety, which kids are generally ill-equipped to process and manage. This phenomenon also agitates the scourge of cyberbullying, and misleading exposures to oversexualized materials. If these circumstances aren't dire enough, the internet has also become a hotbed for sexual predators.

In addition to mental health professionals, the filmmakers speak with a series of concerned parents who have witnessed a profound transformation in their children, especially when placed in contrast to their own carefree beginnings. Then there are the children themselves. They speak to the overpowering allure of their devices, the pressures these devices place on them in their daily lives, and the challenge they face when they try to abandon them altogether.

The digital world our children have inherited is chock full of pitfalls and dangers around every corner. With exceptional clarity, this film diagnosis the scope of the dilemma and addresses the need to slow down and take stock before we reach a point of no return.

Directed by: Jamin Winans, Robert Muratore, Kiowa K. Winans

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john
john
1 year ago

Well it's the parents that give them smart phones...so...there you have it.

stereotypical clickbait
stereotypical clickbait
1 year ago

How boring. it's 2023 and a handheld terminal is challenging? And you're a genius if you can click an icon? Or setup a user-level configuration? I pity kids whose parents are so clueless and so easily bewildered / impressed.

Nick
Nick
1 year ago

As a parent, this made me really think about my relationship with my children. I think we need more of these conversations. What I didn't really like that much abut the production was the tempo of the interviews or how they were edited together - it resembled a modern music video with a ton of images one after another.

Susan
Susan
3 years ago

The kids to today are just a stupid walking out of the 12th grade on graduation day ( if they make it that far) as they were walking into kindergarten on the first day.

Erik
Erik
3 years ago

Seems like one long ad justifying their Info-Service. Poorly made and mostly incoherent personal narratives in search of relevance. Not worth watching.

shut up
shut up
3 years ago

how dare that child be born when they were.

Roger Andout
Roger Andout
3 years ago

Though interesting, this is 90 minutes of telling me what almost everybody is well aware of, especially parents. Truthfully, there is nothing new is all of this. With the number of professionals commenting in the film there is a dearth of solutions or even helpful suggestions. No suggestions of how to cope with emerging technologies, just re-inforcement of established fears. 5/10

Toni
Toni
3 years ago

Technology has not been designed to free humanity; it is to enslave. We need our roots, autonomy, and independence. Get rid of "smart" everything. Hardwire any tech you use. We must control the tech allowed into our lives or it will control and destroy us. Get outside, notice we're being sprayed like insects from above, and then fight against this atrocity, too.

Joe Shlibanky
Joe Shlibanky
3 years ago

decent documentary, pretty heavy, definitely highlights the common place sexual abuse and self harm effects technology is having on kids, a lot of problems presented not a lot of solutions