Not every game is playing

And not every playing is a game

Play is an essential part of childhood, however its nature is often misunderstood. What characterizes play in contrast to other activities is that it is a freewheeling activity that does not have any real potential negative consequences. That is part of what makes play so joyful and pleasurable. Another important aspect of play is that it’s a very creative activity in the sense that the rules which govern it are in themselves very flexible and evolving.

The evolutionary role of play is most probably learning and practicing activities that may be useful later in life. A lot of play activities involve imitating and ‘pretend’ games of adult activities that kids see around them; but importantly they are without any of the potential real negative consequences that are associated with these activities in real life. This means that there is no concept of failure in play, and therefore no stress, no fear or anxiety, a fact which probably helps facilitate the learning and the experimentation process.

Children are naturally born masters of play and it is fascinating to watch them engaging in it. The rules are invented and reinvented as they go along, and if an ‘error’ occurs or if something unexpected happens, the reaction is often a hearty laugh, and frequently that error or unexpected occurrence instantly becomes the new rule. Play is a masterpiece of free experimentation, where anything can happen, and nothing is wrong.

Real play time is extremely important to children’s development, and remains important for adults throughout life. A healthy dose of real play is important for the soul and for our mental health. Because of its freewheeling nature, play is also foundational for creativity. If it had real consequences, it would be governed by fear and anxiety and would therefore be more constricted and less open minded and experimental. Real play is characterized by joy and curiosity. It is very often, though not always, a social activity, perhaps because the elements of joy and surprise are more extenuated in social situations.

It is important to understand that not every game or sport constitutes real play in the sense discussed here. Any games, sports, or other activities that have real consequences, emotional or otherwise, are not real play, and should not be counted as such. This includes all competitive games and sports, since there are negative emotional consequences to losing, and that means that we are not in the pure play mode anymore. This is another reason to try to minimize competitive games in children’s lives. Once a game becomes competitive, it loses its pure play mode.

Leisure seems to be a precondition to play. We should also count being idle and daydreaming as play since they have the same features of being freewheeling with no set purpose, no concept of failure, and involving no stress, fear or anxiety. It is therefore generally not a good idea to be afraid of and try to always avert boredom because boredom is a precondition for these states of being idle and of daydreaming.

Entertainment is similar to play in some important respects. They both require leisure and both have no potential real life negative consequences. On of the allures of entertainment and the reason why we consume and enjoy entertainment that trigger in us emotions that would usually be considered as negative in real life, such as sadness, stress, fear etc. is that it allows us to experience those emotions in situations where the stakes are not real and there are no real life potential negative consequences, as it is all ‘pretend’. In this they are similar to play. However the major difference between entertainment and play is that entertainment is passive, whereas play is active and creative.

Play is especially important for creative processes, such as academic and artistic processes. Both academia and the artistic world suffer when there is not enough play involved in them. Leisure and stress free environment are very beneficial to creativity, and when there is not enough of that, either because of over-pressure to publish as is the case in contemporary academia, or the pressure to sell and make a living out of art as is the case in the contemporary artistic world, are very detrimental to both. Both are at their best when fueled by play-like joy and curiosity, and a lack of an adequate amount of it tends to impoverishes them.

The prevalence of video games in the lives of kids these days is also lamentable in this regard, as they are mostly not freewheeling and stress free play in the sense described here, and come at the expense of real play time. Another significant enemy of play is school as it is almost completely bereft of real play activities and dominates the time and lives of kids to such a degree that it does not leave them much time and energy for it.

It is important for both kids and adults to have sufficient real play in their lives. We should have the opportunity and be allowed to play as much as possible during childhood, a time when it comes very naturally to us, and this would help us maintain some degree of playfulness, and not forget how to engage in childlike play later on as adults.