Is the Future of Toys Looking Bleak?

Walking by means of any toys department or toy section of a superstore, and the one thing which is blindingly obvious is just how crucial technology has become as far as the reputation of toys is concerned. Shelves upon shelves of computer games scream out for attention, providing youngsters worlds of possibilities, thrilling game play, full throttle interaction, total immersion in fantasy worlds and other experiences which seem virtually too superior to be true.

Even taking a step away from these purely laptop or computer driven games, it seems that pretty much just about every other toy consists of a microchip, for fun filled completely interactive entertainment. But do our children truly require to be entertained? Or do kids have not only a natural desire to entertain themselves, but truly have such a want? It’s tempting to feel, looking at the array of toys on offer, that personal computer games and technologies driven toys are likely to take more than a child’s life, and replace their play time with entertainment time. Replacing play with entertainment is not, of course, the exact same thing, and creates a certain problem.

Play is completely active, the child is the centre and the driving force of the game, and the child is the one who require to use their imagination, whereas entertainment is far more passive, with the child merely observing, or participating in a reasonably passive way, what an individual else has imagined and produced. Lowering the child’s active involvement, and decreasing the need for them to stimulate and use their own imagination can be no very good thing - but is this exactly where we are heading, and are classic toys set to be resigned to the history museum? Will the youngsters of the future merely plug themselves in to play?

Absolutely it is tempting to suggest such a thing, but in reality, the answer can be discovered extremely very easily by watching youngsters play. Children’s simple demands are not moulded by fashion or industry. Children have a strong natural desire to play, to be in control of their own play, to develop their own rules and to break the rules set for them. This is not simply a misty eyed way of searching at childhood, these needs are set in the psychological stone of thousands of years of evolution. It’s the way young children discover the independence, and how they makes sense of the world.

Though youngsters get pleasure from playing laptop games, normally this is a social factor, with them inviting buddies round to play with them, as most games are multiplayer. The game then becomes not the focus, but the medium by way of which they play and compete. The amount of time they invest on every game is, in the vast majority of circumstances, really rather limited. Even searching at the clever technological toys, such as the ones that sing, dance, tell stories and react. When the batteries are dead, the toy is usually nonetheless played with, in the much more classic sense. My daughter will happily play tea time with her teddy bears and have a couple of all singing all dancing dolls sitting alongside them, remaining switched, entirely mute and enjoyed every bit as much as if they had been active.

Kids write the rules, and while the technology and toy business can throw technologies into the mix, it’s the kids who ultimately make their options about not only what to play with, but how. Clever toys may well generate an excited reaction, and obtain considerably attention during the life of the first set of batteries, but when the batteries have dies, and the initial novelty has worn off, there will often be constructing blocks and crayons, which never run out, either of possibilities, or power. Powered by children’s imaginations, rather than batteries, these toys are set to last forever.