Are Kids Depressed Because They Don't Just Play Anymore?

Summary: "School has become an abnormal setting for children," says Peter Gray, a professor of psychology at Boston College. "Instead of admitting that, we say the children are abnormal." Gray, who is the author of the 2016 Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life, says that a cultural shift towards a more interventionist approach to child rearing is having dire consequences. "Over the same period of time that there has been a gradual decline in play," he told Reason's Nick Gillespie, "there are well documented, gradual, but ultimately huge increases in a variety of mental disorders in childhood—especially depression and anxiety." Gray believes that social media is one saving grace. "[Kids] can't get together in the real world...[without] adult supervisors," hes says, "but they can online." Edited by Mark McDaniel. Cameras by Todd Krainin and Jim Epstein. Music by Broke for Free.