WHY ARE YOUNG PEOPLE DISCONNECTED FROM NATURE (and what we can do to reconnect them)
A conversation with the director of the film PLAY AGAIN
Several years ago Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein was walking in Forest Park when a young boy came running by, his eyes gleaming half in glee, half in terror. He was being pursued by his older brother and as he passed, he called out, "I feel like I'm in a video game."
Children today for the most part hardly ever play outside, let alone get to experience wild nature outside the city. Instead they spend up to 90% of their time in front of computer screens, video games and cellphones, seeking connection with other people they can neither see nor touch. What will happen to this generation of children when they grow up, if they never get to have direct experiences with nature, and who will be there to advocate for the Earth if they don't really know that's where they live.
This week on Locus Focus Tonje Hessen Schei joins host Barbara Bernstein to talk about her new film, PLAY AGAIN, which examines this disturbing phenomon and shows some possible ways that children can learn to play again in nature, nourishing the creativity that gets stifled by too much "screen time."
PLAY AGAIN is being screened at the Bagdad Theater, SE Hawthorne and 37th
May 15th, 2010
7pm (doors at 6:15pm)