Why Johnny Can't Play

Ted Klauber is fiddling with a projector, trying to find just the right video clip to illustrate his point. Klauber, 42, a New York City-based senior executive at advertising giant FCB Worldwide, has spent the past year researching the relationship between kids and technology. He could talk for days about how kids today are different from those of previous generations and about how FCB's clients should respond to that change.

But he knows that the most articulate voices for his ideas belong to the kids themselves, as well as to their parents. So Klauber turns off the lights and shows his clip. First a group of young boys from London rattle off a seemingly endless list of after-school activities that the week has in store for them. Then the mother of a boy in Singapore describes the four classes that her son takes every Saturday. "It's incredible when you think about it," says Klauber, senior VP and worldwide director of Mind & Mood, a proprietary tool of FCB. "When I was a kid, I'd roam around on my blue Schwinn for hours. These kids have daily to-do lists. Some of them have only 20 minutes of free time a day."

When Klauber started this project, he had no initial hypothesis -- only a commitment to exploring an infrequently asked question: How is digital technology (and the lifestyle issues that go along with it) affecting young children's "sense of fun, play, and thinking"? After conducting 40 in-depth workshops with kids (ages 6 to 11) and their parents from several countries -- including Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and the United States -- Klauber arrived at answers that are both refreshing and alarming.

Among his seven primary findings: The obsession among parents with efficiency and productivity has trickled down to even the youngest of kids. Playtime has morphed into what Klauber calls a "digital wonderland" -- a fast-moving, goal-oriented zone that affords "little time for aimless fun." Kids today are focused on competition, on efficiency, and on results. One consequence of this development is that their imaginations are beginning to atrophy: Play is all about the destination, rather than the journey.

"When parents talked to us about their childhoods," Klauber says, "they had a sense of wonderment. They remembered building forts out of pillows and blankets. They remembered making up elaborate stories. But because kids today have so little free time, and because they're always surrounded by media, they don't explore what's off the beaten path. They want their fun to be quick and easy. The art of being bored is lost."

Of course, child-development experts have worried for years about the impact that television has on creativity. But Klauber's questions -- and conclusions -- go well beyond the standard fare. For one thing, his research focused on the impact of relatively new technologies, such as the Internet and video games. For another, he looked beyond technology to address the attitudes that are reshaping children's lives. Are "play dates" -- with all of their rules and structure -- the best way for kids to have fun with one another? Is it necessarily a good thing that virtual technology allows kids to overcome the physical barriers that are associated with childhood? Thanks to computers and video games, Klauber says, a seven-year-old can drive a car, fight a war, or hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball. Does such freedom from physical limitations produce smarter, faster kids? Or does it create what he calls "adults of all ages"? Or both?

Klauber is the first to admit that he's not a lifelong expert on children's issues. In fact, he spends most of his time doing brand-oriented research for FCB's clients, which include AT&T, DaimlerChrysler, and Quaker Oats. But once a year, he undertakes a major research project on a topic of broad interest. "The idea is to get ahead of our customers by identifying trends before anyone else does," he says. "It's a lot like cultural anthropology -- trying to get at the emotions and motivations behind people's behavior."

Unlike many market researchers, Klauber never begins his work with a theory. ("When you do that," he says, "you tend to validate what you already know, and you miss a lot of learning opportunities.") Instead, Klauber and his team start by asking general, open-ended questions about people's lives. "We back our way into the subject matter," says Klauber. "That way, people don't just tell us what they think we want to hear. They tell us what matters to them."

Moreover, Klauber and his team never put a bunch of strangers together in a room, as most focus-group organizers do. Instead, they interview subjects in the company of members of an "affinity group." For this particular project, Klauber's team would invite one child to a workshop and then ask that child to bring along some friends. "Being with your peer group acts as an incredibly honest governor," says Klauber.