Out of the Woods: Today’s Kids Can’t See the Forest for the MTV

Out of the Woods: Today’s Kids Can’t See the Forest for the MTV is a casual and humorous article written by Joel Achenbach. He brings up good points about how kids are alienated from nature and whose fault it really is. He mostly focuses on the fact that it’s the parents who have kept children from the “outdoorsy” world. He says that parents are sending a message that says “Go play outside, and watch out for serial killers” (paragraph 10). While this is a great point, it’s not just the parents’ fault, it’s society’s fault too. The reason parents have to warn their children about serial killers is because nowadays, there are serial killers. Parents cannot help that fact. Achenbach also says that as parents “we hint that it’s the land of speeding cars, heatstroke, lightning, and creepy strangers,” which is true. Times have changed since Achenbach was a kid, and even since I was a kid. These dangers do exist and this world is different than it used to be, but the parenting has changed dramatically—at least according to Achenbach. He often refers to his own childhood experiences, and relates them back to his own children’s experiences, which is a powerful type of comparison. It gives a very clear cut picture of the differences. For instance, he says “Back then you got three channels, and a fourth if you could pull in that snowy station on the UHF band” (paragraph 5). Considering that most children watch an average of something like 5 hours of television a day, he makes a good point that time has changed. The most important question he presents to the readers is why the parenting has changed—or has it at all?