When did "play" change?

I have a bit of a pipe dream.  I want to be a toy maker.  professionally.

Why?
Well, I like things that are fun.  
I'm also pretty critical of the toys available in Toys R' Us (who decided to throw-up pink all over the girls' aisle?)

This being said -- I've got "toy making" on my to-do list (along with a million other things like correctly pronouncing items on a French menu, so everyone can say "wow, look at that sophisticated lady" or being able to name more than 5 African countries without going to Wikipedia).

We'll see when that happens.  In the meantime, I've been fascinated by articles on toys & play, like this one my college friend, Allison, shared with me, which I'll discuss now.

In the above 1955 commercial, Mattel introduced the toy, "Thunder Burp" (which, by the way, is scarily real looking... move over Mortal Combat).  It also marked the first time that a corporation tried to advertise a toy outside of Christmas season.

Cultural Historian, Howard Chudacoff, argues that at this moment "play" moved from "an activity" to "the toy itself."  With the onslaught of commercials targeted at kids, children started connecting "play" with "toys."

As a result, decades later one of the most popular children's YouTube channels in Singapore is Disney Collectors BR, which is essentially an "online toy showroom".  Videos like the Toy Story playset receive 25M views; the channel itself has 625M views to date.  To put that in perspective -- Gangham Style has 1.7B views to date (the most watched video EVER).  

Disney Collectors BR does not encourage make-believe.  It merely shows-off how to use a toy (with surprisingly boring narration).

By not having to "create" their play, children no longer have to rely on their imagination.

"During the second half of the 20th century, [...] play changed radically. Instead of spending their time in autonomous shifting make-believe, children were supplied with ever more specific toys for play and predetermined scripts. Essentially, instead of playing pirate with a tree branch they played Star Wars with a toy light saber. Chudacoff calls this the commercialization and co-optation of child's play — a trend which begins to shrink the size of children's imaginative space." - NPR

Source: allisondawnpr.com

And, it's not just the toy makers' fault.  Parents have become scared, specifically in developed countries like the United States with the onslaught of Amber Alerts & "Milk Carton Children."  

Note: This is not the case in developing countries where kids still seem to "roam."

Parents have substituted unsupervised play with karate lessons, summer camps and "educational" TV programming.

This may prepare kids for the "scheduling components" of adult life (9 AM: conference call, 2 PM: Q3 progress report, 6 PM: Pick-up dry cleaning), but it doesn't prepare them to "create" something new -- to be innovative, to tell a good story, to question "why".

Was I personally affected by this?  Yes.  But, to a lesser extent than today's children.

I had organized girl scout groups and art classes, but still maintained the freedom to roam around the neighborhood with a pack of kids for hours on end.  

I spent a concerning amount of time at construction sites, picking up scrap wood for my "projects" and going door-to-door selling my latest handmade holiday merchandise (i.e., ghosts made from kleenex and a rubber band, BRILLIANT!).

This loss of imagination is sad.  But, what if that doesn't matter to you? 

Maybe less imaginative people are more practical, more stable, better "citizens" 


Well, it also affects kids growing up to be productive adults.

Laura Berk, a researcher, says, "through make-believe, children engage in what's called private speech: They talk to themselves about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it."

That little "voice" leads to self-regulation -- i.e., controlling emotions and behavior, resisting impulses, and exerting self-control and discipline.  A classic example of "self-regulation" is the "marshmallow test."  Researchers give children a marshmallow -- they can eat it whenever they want, but if they wait 5 minutes, they will get a second marshmallow.

The higher the "self-regulation" of a child (or the more likely they are to wait the 5 minutes to earn 2 marshmallows), the better their grades and "life success" will be.  In fact, self-regulation (not IQ) is the greatest predictor of school success.  Unfortunately, today's 5 year old has the same "self-regulation" as the average 3 year old from 60 years ago. 

"It seems that in the rush to give children every advantage — to protect them, to stimulate them, to enrich them — our culture has unwittingly compromised one of the activities that helped children most. All that wasted time was not such a waste after all." - NPR

Isn't that ironic? (cue Alanis Morissette)

The solution isn't to just go back in time.  Toys are here for good.  

Instead, we should focus on developing toys that stimulate imagination rather than diminish it.

That's my new "design challenge" for toys.  

(that is after I memorize the continent of Africa and can say "foie gras" and "bouillabaisse" with the best of them)

Source: Katerina Plotnikova