October 6, 2014 - 15:51
Although I agree with your comment that the children of the 21st century are restricting themselves from physically playing, I would like to bring up the matter of whether or not our surroundings truely affect our ability to play. There have been many a rainy day which I spent, as a child, acting out scenarios in my head: the filling between each tile on the wall or the bathroom floor would be a maze which I had to escape to go on and climb the side of the sink. Now mind you, this was all done by imagining the events and pretending I was a shrunk down version of myself, but would this "play" not be catagorized as "play" just because it is inside? The technology which is now a big part of the lives of many children, contain many games and even painting apps. Just because their "play" may be limited to a screen it does not limit the amount of "play" they experience or how creative it is. It enhances it by giving a more physical depiction of their creativity, thus making this new "play" just as credible as the "play" our generation experienced as children of the same age.