HARRIET'S TEENAGE SONS were so sociable as small children that she wasn't prepared for what she calls the "hermit phase". Around the age of 13 or 14, both boys started holing up in their bedrooms. Although they were avidly gaming and chatting with their friends online, real-world socialising seemed to fade away.
"They weren't at all interested in seeing their friends; they just wanted to be left alone. It's as if something clicked," says Harriet (not her real name), a hospice manager living in a small town. Though she tried not to make an issue of it, their withdrawal bothered her: a healthy teenage life, she feels, should involve a bit of adventurous pushing of boundaries. When she suggested her sons go into town with friends, as she had done at their age, they balked. "The youngest wouldn't because apparently 'that's not what mates do', and he wouldn't go on his own because that looks sad." But mostly, she says, they were baffled by the idea of hanging around shopping malls with friends when they could buy anything they want online. "Everything encourages them to be at home - phones, gaming, amazing TV, stuff being delivered to your house." Though Harriet doesn't think lockdown caused the boys' behaviour, it may have prolonged the habit of socialising online, she says.
What she's describing is a phenomenon many parents of teenagers will recognise: a seemingly more insular, home-based, slower way of growing up, persisting in some cases well into the late teens and early 20s. One in three younger Britons are socialising less, according to the struggling nightlife giant Rekom, which last month announced its intention to call in administrators.
Bu hikaye The Guardian Weekly dergisinin February 16, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The Guardian Weekly dergisinin February 16, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Moving Back To Moscow: How Dream Of Freedom Unravelled
The army of riot police had finally retreated from Tbilisi's Rustaveli Avenue, the broad thoroughfare in front of the parliament building, back into the barricaded parliamentary estate.
News Of Raisi's Death Met With Fireworks And Few Tears
Activists in Iran have said there is little mood to mourn the death of the president, Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan on Sunday.
Red Flag? Alito Scandal Casts Doubt On Supreme Court Impartiality
With less than six months to go before America chooses its next president, the US supreme court finds itself in an unenviable position: not only has it been drawn into a volatile election, but swirling ethical scandals have cast doubt on its impartiality.
Infected blood Final report vindicates the families still awaiting justice
\"We have been gaslit for generations,\" was the reaction of Andy Evans, chair of the campaign group Tainted Blood, in response to the final report into the contaminated blood scandal, which was published on Monday.
The race to evacuate Vovchansk's remaining residents
Rescue operations ever more dangerous as fighting reaches Kharkiv townat the centre of Russia’s latest offensive
Alice Munro 1931 -2024
The Nobel prize winner whose masterly accounts of ordinary lives in smalltown Canada elevated the short story into the highest form of literature
Creativity takes root
From Nikide Saint Phalle's Tuscan Tarot Garden to Barbara Hepworth's coastal oasis, artists’ green spaces are about somuch more than plants
Tory war on overseas students is all about saving their own skins
A key turning point in British politics was Tony Blair's famous priorities: \"education, education, education\".
Catalans once longed for freedom, but it doesn't look so appealing now
For the first time since 1980, parties opposing Catalonia's independence from Spain have the support of a majority of voters in the region.
I believe that Ricky's law has saved lives, it has changed lives, restored families'
Ricky Klausmeyer-Garcia’s friends struggled to get him addiction treatment, leading to the creation of alawin his name. Buta year after his death, profound questions remain about how best to help those with substance use disorder in the US.