Don’t kill off online pursuits

I LOVE Professor Susan Edwards’ description that: “play is evolving, but not shrinking”.

I have two children, neither has hit their teenage years, and I often ponder the amount of time they spend in front of a screen. When I was a child, play was all about being outside. I grew up on a farm so jumping on the push bike, playing backyard cricket or kicking a soccer ball against a wall was my idea of fun.

Mind you, I spent quite a few hours building LEGO and making up imaginary intergalactic wars using a few plastic army men and a container of cicada shells (they looked weirdly alien enough).

Now I watch my kids engaging in a very different sort of play; one that involves the two of them immersing themselves in a digital world.

However, while I agree that excessive amounts of screen time can be damaging, some of these online worlds still allow children to use their imagination and spark creativity.

They are not physically taking blocks of LEGO and connecting them to build shapes, but in the Minecraft game they are using digital blocks to construct whole worlds.

So while physical activity remains important, and I ensure my children put the screens down and get outside to play, I would consider digital interactions and creativity important. As parents we must consider the importance of children engaging in some digital pastimes.