From Cat's Cradle to Video Games

They reflect the social, economic, religious and artistic life of the culture from which they develop and have, themselves, become an intrinsic part of human existence. It seems likely that complex games are developed locally from simple basic elements that have been widely diffused. The importance of related variants and how they are transmitted are furthermore continuing puzzles and continuing controversy exists as to whether children's games have been to a great extent influenced by adults or whether they are passed independently from one generation of children to another. In many – if not all – cultures, formalized child’s play provides a training ground where the child learns skills useful to him in later life, a counterpart to the play training of young animals.

The ancient string game, Cat’s Cradle, is common to cultures as varied as Chinese, Eskimo, Australian and African. Part of civilization is defined by what people did or do with their leisure time. Children’s play is as much part of the history of a culture as is the religion or the court practices or their art. In ancient Greece, Plato said that you can tell what a person is like in one hour of play what you cannot tell off him in one year of conversation. It is obvious that children have few pretences and fewer pretensions. When children play, not only simple games like cat’s cradle but also complex games, like chess, they put their entire selves into the final outcome of that play – be him victor or vanquished – the commitment is to succeed. So from a young age, they vie for a place in the social hierarchy – be it a position of leadership or cosignatory, king, bishop or pawn. Through play, they understand their capacities, to win or lose; their capabilities, to lead, delegate or follow rules; their peer positions, in a team or twosome.

Within game playing are sowed the seeds that are going to be the adults of tomorrow.

The games of yore – till the Victorian age – were games that pitted skill, mental agility, bodily capacity and manual dexterity against himself or the opponent – whichever the case may be. Perhaps children borrow from the prevailing age, perhaps the hidden philosophy of their elders – but there is no doubt that they play to imitate the adults in their young lives, and are preparing themselves in their ‘fantasy land’ for the skills required in their own futures. That is how a child invests in the future.

Came along the Age of Enlightenment and the Printing Press and children’s games turned towards more educational pursuits. Board games, like ‘The Mansion of Happiness’ and card games became popular as did jigsaw puzzles, geographical maps and book. The child may not have had satellite access to cultures in different continents but certainly travelers and explorers came back from distant lands to share what they had experienced and to write books about them – so that in the Victorian age, children thought that monkeys were giants, and that elephants were small, as is represented in the Chippendale furniture carvings of the time.

With the end of the Victorian age and the Romantic Period came the beginning of the Modern Era. With it came Capitalist Markets, Art on a wide scale, and the Television. The fantasies that had furbished the intelligence and imagination of the young child now became furnished with what the television and I’s attendant passivity could provide.

A culture is an amalgam of many things. How a person talks, whom and how he worships, what he wears, what he eats, how he speaks. But most of all, a culture is defined by how he spends his leisure time. In Agrarian cultures, there is little leisure. Whatever small time is left, was spent in family oriented small industry. So that in Afghanistan, one may find a geometrical kilm made by small hands, in Iran a fine silk floral carpet and in Tunisia, artfully painted ceramics.

When your leisure time is spent watching television, your creative potential is not being honed and you are wasting your creativity on a passive pastime. The wider culture suffers.

Research shows that watching television among school children reduces creativity, curtails imagination and decreases time spent reading. It may not lead to violent behavior or aggressive attitudes like contemporary video games do, but certainly it wastes precious childhood potential.

Games are always a reflection of the adult world, with children portraying the adult attitudes they see in all their innocence and ‘replaying’ them in play, trying the role on for size to see how ‘adulthood’ sits upon their small shoulders.

Currents research shows that unfocused leisure time leads to boredom. And unchecked boredom transforms into adult depression. There is no doubt that now, more than ever before, depression is an Endemic. Depression is the symptom of our ailing era. And leisure time and boredom a signpost – an unnatural milestone – whether in childhood or adulthood – or our times.

It is unfortunate that in times such as these, when media coverage is global and research upon a myriad subjects, widespread and deep, that television continues to dampen the creativity of the child instead of offering a more viable solution as a greater tool for education.

If games are a reflection of society – and a preparation for adulthood, then today’s video games very clearly reflect our current global war torn and violence based cultures. Educated as we are, we are unable to rectify man’s propensity for war and greed. Today’s violent games and plastic toys reflects the adults preoccupation with proxy wars, corporate board room annexations, and a material culture where everything is dispensable with a shelf life of five years.