Something that characterizes each child on planet Earth is the capacity to have fun and play no matter what their cultural background. We tend to forget that games are an essential part of our journey to adulthood. Does that mean that we are no longer able to have fun while learning? Not at all, it’s just that we are told to behave in a way which is mostly “serious” denying our “gamer mindset” as we get older. We somehow lose at the same time our spontaneity. But, interestingly, we observe that even when we are adult, we still look for some kind of game or fun through entertainment. This is one of the reasons why the entertainment industry has so much success, basically because adult life denies games in order to fit into the seriousness of professional life.
So, in a way, the entertainment industry is just taking advantage of this situation – the natural need for fun and games, inherent in each of us – by profiting from it.
We all are natural gamers and we’re smart because of this too. Without games, nothing really could have been learnt during our childhood.
Because we take life too seriously we become stuck somehow in our natural growth. We may be successful on the material side, but something is missing when we cannot enjoy and find pleasure out of our routine, and we seem withered. Being unable to learn how to play in life increases the distance between generations. Forgetting how to play makes it harder to communicate with the young generation since games mean emotional interactions which may increase mutual understanding and trust.
