I'm not who you asked, but I remember being one of the few quiet boys in my classes when I was a young kid in elementary school (in the US that's like ages 4-10, grades kindergarten through 5th grade). I was resentful of the ones who were always being loud and roughhousing in class and talking loud and not doing their work, and they were always boys.
But when I passed a test to get into a better school than my elementary school, that never happened. Everyone was respectful and followed the rules a whole lot better. There was loud talking sometimes, but everyone always got quiet and listened when the teachers spoke, always did their work, always cleaned up after themselves and were respectful. Meanwhile, I heard from my friends who had gone to another school that there were fistfights all the time and that that behavior I described never stopped.
Anyway, this is to say that I don't think this is a thing inherent to boys, maybe more like culture and social class.
On the other hand, this also isn't to say "Screw them, they just need to be better." If boys are doing worse in school now, then why? Maybe it's, like you said, a lack of physical activity. Recess has been getting cut at elementary schools.
With TV, people gave up more quickly on problems given to them, and children's acts of verbal and physical aggression per minute were doubled in boys and girls. Television also introduced more gender-stereotyped views than there were before. Children's reading performance suffered.
Anyway, I'm wondering if giving children unfettered access to YouTube and TikTok via their phones is like TV, but worse. At least TV only had a few channels in the 1970s and they weren't on it 24/7. This might impact lower-class families more, since they're more likely to just give their kids a tablet or a phone to pacify them, because they're busy. That might lead to an increase in aggression at school and worse performance on school assignments. Maybe it affects boys more, for some reason.
But when I passed a test to get into a better school than my elementary school, that never happened. Everyone was respectful and followed the rules a whole lot better. There was loud talking sometimes, but everyone always got quiet and listened when the teachers spoke, always did their work, always cleaned up after themselves and were respectful. Meanwhile, I heard from my friends who had gone to another school that there were fistfights all the time and that that behavior I described never stopped.
Anyway, this is to say that I don't think this is a thing inherent to boys, maybe more like culture and social class.
On the other hand, this also isn't to say "Screw them, they just need to be better." If boys are doing worse in school now, then why? Maybe it's, like you said, a lack of physical activity. Recess has been getting cut at elementary schools.
I came across a comic that portrayed a study done on a town before it got television, and after it got television: https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/town-without-television...
With TV, people gave up more quickly on problems given to them, and children's acts of verbal and physical aggression per minute were doubled in boys and girls. Television also introduced more gender-stereotyped views than there were before. Children's reading performance suffered.
Anyway, I'm wondering if giving children unfettered access to YouTube and TikTok via their phones is like TV, but worse. At least TV only had a few channels in the 1970s and they weren't on it 24/7. This might impact lower-class families more, since they're more likely to just give their kids a tablet or a phone to pacify them, because they're busy. That might lead to an increase in aggression at school and worse performance on school assignments. Maybe it affects boys more, for some reason.