The Loss of Unstructured Play and the Fading Shared Human Experience

As I have said of other of my blog posts, I didn't do research about this, it is merely my opinion which formed while I was tying my shoes, or taking a shower, or, in this case, as I was getting dressed on Sunday.

My thoughts started out thinking about writing a post concerning how "children are children the world over, no matter where you go"...but then I realized this will soon not be the case. At the last church I went to, every week at my church small group the toddler age daughter of our hosts would play with people's phones, my nieces (one of whom is 4 and a half) play with my sister's phone, and many people are starting to buy phones or tablets for children who are that age or younger.

I've heard kids have computer classes in preschool and, if not then, then very soon after. Recess, free time, etc. seem to be in ever shorter supply in our country (and perhaps other developed countries). Not only is kindergarten actually highly structured but so are many preschools. Not only is school time structured, but "play time" now largely consists of myriads of structured activities.

Kids thrive on a sense of structure, of knowing what to expect but spontaneity has to be a part of life, you have to experience spontaneity and learn how to respond to it at an early age or life is going to be really tough.
 
So very increasing structure and becoming deeply involved with technology at ever younger ages, what does this have to do with the "shared human experience?" When telling others why I like working with kids in different cultures (and I have experienced quite a few) one of the things I say is, "Kids are kids, wherever you go." You may have no clue about the language, you may know nothing pertaining to the proper customs when interacting with adults, but you can play tag, hide-and-seek, climb a tree, kick a ball around, play hopscotch (or something like it), and relate to the kids in a thousand other ways, if you're willing to. Why is this possible? Because their unstructured play using only their environment and very limited resources took on a structure of its own that echoes your own childhood experiences. During this largely unsupervised play they formed their own rules of interaction and they remind us of lessons we learned on the playground or in our backyard. These children, those as a people they look and act so different from us, remind us a little of ourselves.
In short, through the children of another culture, we realize "they" are not so different from ourselves. The picture flashed in my head of the old and not so old pictures of soldiers smiling at children and children smiling back, because they are relating to each other, even if the parents seem alien, there's a spark of familiarity between the soldier and the child.

In this age of globalization we might just be increasing the differences between developing countries and developed ones; instead of closing gaps, we might be widening them. Imagine a child from today or one born ten years from now, with their hands always on technology, with their organized sports, organized dance, organized life, and now imagine them going to a developing country for the first time when they are a teenager or an adult. Their phone may not get reception and slightly organized chaos is the schedule for the day.

Will there still be as much of a spark of recognition as they look at these alien children, will they still be able to see themselves in them and their play? It may be interesting to watch, it may be heartbreaking...I guess we'll have to wait and see.

P.S. Maybe I'm totally wrong, maybe because of often exposure to world news, to cultural events from around the world, the children of tomorrow will be able to relate to cultures other than their own better we ever could. Again, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Shower Thoughts on Economics

I wrote this after some thoughts occurred to me while taking a shower a few months ago, I hinted at my thoughts and a friend wanted me to share. Keep in mind, I know very little about economics and, overall, I do not follow the news. Saying that, I thought it was worth sharing, maybe?

Because my friend, Jake, asked me to...also, Jake, it is not a dream or anything I want to do, it was merely some thoughts.

While I was in the shower I was thinking about going to Wal-Mart for a few things. I have a strong dislike of Wal-Mart but it is the closest store to me and, I have to admit, having such a variety in one place in convenient. My dislike of it caused me to link Wal-Mart to how poorly our economy is doing. I thought about how there used to be small stores that carried mostly American-made and how towns and even countries used to be a lot more self-sufficient. If another town was failing or started to do poorly it didn't necessarily mean your town would start to do poorly and, especially, ones country's fate was not so closely linked to another. First the industrial revolution began to do away with this self-sufficiency; more and more products began to be made in factories further away, instead of your plow being made by the nearby blacksmith, your dress made by the local tailor, etc. Conversely, the factory towns became more dependent on imported subsistence. Then if an agricultural town did poorly, the factory town suffered as well, and if the factory town suffered losses and people were cut loose, then they bought less.

Globalization took this a step further and intertwined the fate of not only of towns, but also of nations. The phrase popped in my head, “Together we rise, together we fall.” Of course, with globalization there is also the fact that you add a lot of competition. You are competing not only with the company down the road, which has similar access to resources and workers with similar cost of living and, thus, similar wages; but companies across the globe that may have very different access to resources and employees with wages which are determined by totally different means than your own employees' wages. A side note: yes, I know much of the world has unfair wages and horrible work conditions but people rarely seem to also take into account that in some countries you can get a weeks worth of food for only a few dollars and buy a good pair of shoes for a faction of what you would pay here. In other words, you shouldn't just look at how much someone is paid and automatically think it is a horrible wage.

Oh, I almost forgot, in the shower I also thought about how, because each town is no longer self-sufficient and no longer has all the little stores nearby which can provide for your needs, there is not only all the gas and means of power expended in shipping things from far away, but also the added distance and gas you have to use to gain access to these products.

I thought localizing things and decentralizing things (having smaller stores) could help our economy, which is what we used to have anyway. Because I think Wal-Mart is a convenient evil monster that is chiefly responsible with doing away with most mom-and-pop stores, I thought of all this when I thought of going to Wal-Mart.

When I got out of the shower and started eating my breakfast I saw an article in Time called Go Glocal by Rana Foroohar which talks about how companies who are using labor/factories/supplies closer to home are the ones that are doing well and that more companies are likely to follow suit.

Specialization is one way in which states could be not so much in competition with each other. They could mostly try and cater to the companies which are already there, and, thus, not be short changing other states. Intentionally or unintentionally certain companies are already doing this by developing the programs in community colleges which will turn out the individuals they need. Also, it is bound to happen because of the companies starting to utilize small firms and companies to satisfy their needs (those small suppliers will grow and, as the larger company grows, the place where their needs are most readily supplied are right where they are).

Possible Side-Effect of Globalization: The Learned Helplessness of Humanity

A simplified explanation of learned helplessness, courtesy of About.com: “Learned helplessness happens when people or animals become conditioned to believed that a situation is unchangeable or inescapable.” Or, to put it another way, they come to believe that no matter what they do, it won't make a difference.

I suppose I should preface this with the fact that I didn't grow up a hundred or even 50 years ago (or did I?:), so I can't really know how it was then, but I shall guess and someone can tell me if I'm wrong.

It used to be that there was “here” (my community, my area of space, my sphere of influence that most influenced me and I could influence) and “there” (that far off place that you may hear rumors about, but it seemed distant, other, not really part of your world). You knew there were a few families in need that lived down the road, the family who lost their father, the old maid who lived around the corner, the town next door that was struck by a tornado. There was a sense of “here” to those tragedies, trials, and disasters. If you felt so inclined to help, you could actually help by packing a box of food, by hopping in a truck and pitching in, by gathering your neighbors to raise a barn, bring in the harvest, or help to cut the hay.

Now, in a sense, everywhere is “here,” everywhere is brought close, to our doorstep and into our homes. With our own eyes we see the slaughter of wars fought a world away and with our ears we hear the yells of grief brought about by the latest earthquake. Everywhere is “here,” but our sphere influence does not reach to everywhere. The suffering of the world is laid at our feet, but our hands are a thousand miles away, our mouths are too far to try and whisper words of comfort, the tears in our eyes are too far away to heal the wounds of hearts.

There is so much to do, so many who need help, the world is so big that it's impossible to make a difference in all that pain. So we learn helplessness, we are paralyzed into doing nothing because it wouldn't make a difference anyway.

I once learned somewhere, that whenever you present some far away awful tragedy, when you share some humongous need, try to always also tell your audience how they can make a difference, give them something they can do to help. Otherwise, they're just left feeling bad and more helpless than they did before.

Until you are at a position where you can help someone across the world, focus on your own doorstep. Until you have the resources to grow wings to reach a world away, focus on where your hands can reach. There is still plenty to do where you are. Or, if your heart is touched to help those so far away, find an organization that you can support through time, money, work, or donations. Have a sharper focus, a more zoned-in passion and you never know what those little acts of kindness will inspire across the world or into the future.

In your desire to help everyone make sure you don't end up helping no one. Also, maybe take a break from the news every once in awhile or just focus on the local news.