What Does the Change in Kid Bike Riding Habits Say About Our Culture?
Today as I was reading Cal Ripken’s book on parenting young athletes titled The Ripken Way I came across a startling statistic.
According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control, on any typical day kids today are six times more likely to play a video game than to ride a bike.
As recently as 1995, more than two-thirds of all American kids who were ages seven to ten rode a bike at least six times a year. Fewer than half rode a bike last year…
As I read this, the first thing I thought was this is an indication of a major cultural shift in our society. The next thing I thought was how this contrasts with the rise in travel sports.
On one hand, we have a culture where kids prefer to play video games over going outside to play. On the other hand we have a culture where parents are investing more money than ever in youth sports. According to a study by TD Ameritrade, nearly 20% of U.S. families spend more than $1,000 per month on youth sports, per child…
My Hypothesis On the Decline in Youth Bike Riding Habits
My hypothesis is that the rise of travel sports is causing unorganized outside play to be uncool. Therefore instead of playing outside for fun, non-athletic kids are just staying indoors to play video games. In addition, since the other kids who really love being athletic are traveling, practicing or training they’re absent from the neighborhood. This means the less athletic kids don’t have role models outside playing to encourage them.
In short, kids who love athletics are playing youth sports instead of riding bikes and playing outside. Kids who don’t naturally gravitate to athletics don’t see kids outside playing, and therefore have no desire to go outside.
25 years ago the naturally athletic kids only practiced a few days a week for a couple hours a day. During the other times they were outside riding bikes and playing. What’s more, these kids were leaders in their neighborhood encouraging other kids to come outside and play too.
Since the sport kids are practicing, training, or traveling 6 to 7 days a week there is a youth leadership gap in neighborhoods. In my opinion, this gap is unquestionably causing a cascading effect that is changing the overall “play” culture among the youth.