Are kids today being raised for survival... or just perpetual digital numbness?

I vivdly remember, being a brat when i was a kid - used to wake up at 7am, and my dad used to pick me up from bed and put me on his lap while he is sipping his morning coffee with "TOI or Hindu" in his hands. Nothing changed in school, jumping over tables, running over the slide (through the sliding section without taking steps), running to clean the board when the teacher asks kids to (competing over stupid stuff). As i grew up started moving to the last bench, and teachers use to scold me for the wasting my potential and not putting effort. Honestly every part in retrospection was fun and socially, kids in school used to play together (girls and boys) and it was fun. (Cant list every stupid shit i did in here)

Coming to the present, I have a nagging feeling that there is no enjoyment and every aspect of our lives are tied to some digital or electronic tool. Kids are born watching TVs - mom used to take me to the street and passerby used to entertain use when we were kids, a sack over the cylinder and it becomes a scary object used to feed us. All the simple fun and games like hide and seek, tag, monkey bars, all replaced by playstations and xboxes. nokia 3310 with snake game was an experience, now COD mobile is the norm.

Everyone like shitting on Gen Z but are they even at fault? We created pipelines, created systems and set expectations for people. The world as the previous generations experienced it is no more, we are today stuck trying to run on an infinite treadmill with no support what so ever.

Social bondings through play replaced with targetted muscle activation and most forget, sports serve more than just to improve physical health. The over emphasis on gym exercises, isolates people further (at max you focus on doing your sets and reps and recover). Isnt this a bad precedent to set? people becoming mentally fragile trying to cope with gym, only leading to body dysmorphia (of some kind). We force women think weight and beauty are the issue, and men similarly are forced to achieve aesthetic physique and financial stability.

Today all are expected to be elites and whats the alternative? mentally not everyone is the same, the very pipelines we deviced have become shakles to us today, So where does this lead us to tomorrow?

Ironically, the "love" that we idolize (romeo and juliet, laila-majnu) have become legendary fictional stories, as we evolved into a system where people are afraid of instability. Systems are becoming hyper efficient, entropy is seen as failure and the cost of search (be in with people, or for research) has been taken away. Dopamine after dopamine, isnt todays love becoming a chasing of dopamine and not reducing cortisol? (meaning, highs are prioritized over stability, thrills over safety and attention over intimacy)

Finally, I think world has become numb as well and i dont see any new changes happening as time progresses because there is no creative incentive or stimulation for that to happen. To think about why apple falls from the tree - silence, dead silence is required. But arent we living in a period where doom scrolling and portable speaker systems (including TWS) has become the norm and silence (not just silence of environment but internal silence) and this is a luxury. I am not saying progress wont happen and the current generation will succeed and achieve financial independence (hopefully) but what about the future? Isnt the cost of financial indpendence too steep for the next gen kids?

This leads me to ask an existential question, that i believe the future generations will face, beyond a hyper elitist society, do kids even have any opportunity to thrive (ignore outliers)?