Play is, in my opinion, an essential quality in a human being. It’s one of the ways that we learn to interact with people, to solve problems, to relive stress, and – most importantly – to discover something of the spark of the divine within us.

Play is a concept you can trace throughout world cultures and throughout history. It’s something hardwired into our DNA. It was designed for permanence.

The classic mantra of the grandparent is how they love to watch their grandchildren play outside their windows. Balls and bikes, hoops and skipping ropes, tag and chase. It comes with squawks of laughter, and it’s all obvious and clear to us what’s going on. It feels safe and ‘wholesome’.

Although it’s not though, is it? Let’s be clear that when we see balls and hoops, they see interdimensional space portals, and mysterious relics recovered from dark dungeons. We see push bikes; they see rocket ships. Imagination is always at work, and we’re always at least one step detached from what they’re doing.

There’s something in the play of a child that is in unfamiliar or indecipherable to us. And that’s because play is primarily theirs. If we want to understand it better, we don’t just watch, but we ask to join in! First though, we need to recognise what they’re doing as play.

Is screen time play?

Which brings me to screen-based play, particularly phones and computer games. It’s become very natural for us to view young people and screens with immediate suspicion. We see this kind of play as not really play at all. And that’s troubling.

Even if we don’t approve, understand, appreciate, enjoy, or like them playing on a screen, that is part of what screen time is about for a young person. Screens mean a lot of things, but one of them is play. One quarter of all apps are games, and almost half of all smartphone usage is gameplay.

Play on screens – as isolating as it looks – tends to be hugely communal. Screens mean networks, which means people, which means society, which – can – mean community, and friends and relationships. Play on a screen today is often immensely interactive, from live chat, to shared exploring and problem-solving, to even something as simple as leader boards.

Play on a screen can also be an absolute feast for imaginations. There are so many possibilities and such potential for wonder in these experiences. Game developers are always looking to add to the whimsy and creativity – as well as add to the ability to share the experience with others.

I get it, it’s scary, and in isolation too much screen time truly is unhealthy. But young people, at least to some degree, are truly engaging with play online. There are toys, and games, and imagination rolling around the digital gardens. We perhaps should try to look on playing young people today with a similar joy and cherishing as we do when we see them with bikes and balls.

I believe kids need to play, and they do need to play physical games with sticks and balls, outside, stretching their muscles and learning to dodge and weave. But play should not be limited to purely what we can understand.

Full disclosure, I kinda wish screen-time wasn’t really a thing. Sure. I like to build stuff with young people, and to play classic games with them. I think that’s good for them too – and is becoming rarer. But I can share that with them and offer them it’s joys without being dark and suspicious with the play that they know.

Start with real interest and joy, seek to understand, and help to keep your young people on their screens safe and wise. Then maybe ask to join in the game occasionally – then maybe we’ll start to cherish watching them play all over again.

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash