For generations, students played and got to know each other through team sports from all across the community.
In the years since the pandemic, however, society has seen a far higher number of students detached from their peers, isolated socially, and addicted to the shallow connections they find more easily on social media via their cell phones and/or computers. Parents often see far less interest in physical activities and feel they should not force their children to play on community recreation teams.
As a result, interaction among youth nationwide is declining; isolation is increasing, and social outcomes for students are the most negative at any time in modern history.