Children's Media: Play

As we discussed the topic of how play functions in childhood and children's media, I started with two questions. 1) Why is play so important for children? Why do we allow children the time and space to play? and 2) What does play look like for adults? In this week's response, I will take you through some of my thought processes, some of the conclusions I came to, and some media examples that support my ideas.

Between mandatory schooling and the occasional chore, a child's time is not bogged down by responsibility, but rather a combination of enjoyment and preparation. Enjoyment, because boredom is the single most terrible thing that can happen for most children, and preparation for the inevitable weight of responsibility that will replace all that fear of boredom. This is probably the basic understanding of what child's play is, but I propose there is something else going on that can extend past childhood and explain the actions and motivations of people of all ages. Certain things, of course, limit leisure and play time like poverty, societal roles, and other limiting circumstances, but each culture, person, and species practices a form of play time that seems to be crucial to developing into an adult and beyond.

Playtime is a testing ground. It's a time where one can simulate future possibilities in a safe space to prepare them for potential challenges. It's a time for creation, to practice building, making, taking and arranging pre-existing materials, developing skills and talents that will one day be crucial to becoming a productive member of the globe. As a child preparing to be adult, you play house, draw pictures, play board games, make up friends and worlds and scenarios. But as an adult, there is still an element of play. There is the type of play such as that in Jacques Tati's Playtime, where he proposes that most of the actions of adults are a type of child's play. If we as adults are doing the same thing as children, just on another level, then what are we preparing for? In Mormon theology, the answer is divinity, as I touched on in class.

So what is it when two young adults join together for a game of Jenga? Morgan and I did as such, and our conclusion? "I'm sure this is more fun when alcohol is involved."

Adults seek escape and release in their leisure time. Drinking, playing video games, exercising, watching TV-- these are all seen as breaks from our main lives which involve social responsibility. What if we were to see these responsibilities as play, the same time we see child's play as their responsibility? Shift the image of work as a necessary evil to work as the creative preparation to advance to a future version of ourselves? Playing Jenga as an adult was amusing with a dash of stress at best, but when it was over Morgan and I had things to look forward to which are the real playtime of being adults. I went home to clean a house, which to me is to create a home, a habitat, environment. Morgan went to hang out with her friends and boyfriend, which is to create memories, relationships, and joy. Playing Jenga was kind of like a church object lesson: sort of amusing, but you get the point real quick and want to move on.

That isn't to say you can't play games as adults, but it has to be self-motivated I think. It comes to mean something else. My favorite times playing games are playing strategy games with my family over the holidays. It's mostly an excuse to spend time together without ending in an argument about politics. I'm at the point in life where I am less interested in playing games than I am in creating them, which is probably how I ended up in film school.