Arts and Letters Daily links to this stupid article from Psychology Today about the wimpification of today's kids. The article works hard to blame any real or imaginary faults of today's kids on some new type of wimpy "upbringing"; it just isn't convincing. The links between the faults and the wimpyness is not proven and the examples are cherry picked and not thought out.
The first example it gives is about today's playgrounds with an "all-rubber-cushioned surface where kids used to skin their knees". What this article ignores is that playgrounds are actually getting more exciting and dangerous for about the last ten years. Monkey bars are coming back, swings and slides are getting higher.
On hot days, kids shoot out the the tall slide in this downtown San Francisco playground at such high speeds they are launched on their asses. Playground designers figure the all rubber cushion will protect kids so why not make it more exiting. It is pretty common for safety measures to be compensated away in this manner.
The article goes on to say kids react to the wimpy upbringing in college:
Drinking, too, has changed. Once a means of social lubrication, it has acquired a darker, more desperate nature. Campuses nationwide are reporting record increases in binge drinking over the past decade, with students often stuporous in class, if they get there at all.
Besides the fact that binge drinking isn't very wimpy to begin with, this paragraph is carefully worded to avoid admiting that binge drinking rates were at their highest in the early and mid 80's when I went to college. (even then students were not "stuporous" in class unless "stuporous" somehow means hungover) Apparently, the first derivative of the binge drinking rate is what is so concerning for some reason.
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