Play

As Christmas approaches, too many parents will be competing to track down and purchase the latest and greatest toy that their child has set their heart on. Take a break from your frenzied competition with other parents to look back at the “5 Best Toys of All Time.” It’s guaranteed that you won’t guess them, even though you should.

So, here are five items that no kid should be without. All five should fit easily within any budget, and are appropriate for a wide age range so you get the most play out of each one. These are time-tested and kid-approved!

1. Stick

This versatile toy is a real classic—chances are your great-great-grandparents played with one. Stick works really well as a poker, digger, and reach-extender. Stick comes in an almost bewildering variety of sizes and shapes, but at least the classic wooden version is biodegradable.

2. Box

Box also comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. You can turn your kids into cardboard robots or create elaborate Star Wars costumes. A large box can be used as a fort or house and the smaller box can be used to hide away a special treasure. Got a Stick? Use it as an oar and the box becomes a boat. One particularly famous kid has used the box as a key component of a time machine, a duplicator and a transmogrifier, among other things.

3. String

Kids absolutely love string. The most obvious use of string is tying things together. You can use it to hang things from doorknobs or tie little siblings to chairs or make leashes for your stuffed animals. Use string with two cans for a telephone, or with a stick to make a fishing pole.

4. Cardboard Tube

The cardboard tube comes free with a roll of paper towels and other products. Some kids have nicknamed the cardboard tube the "Spyer" for its most common use as a telescope. Or tape two of them together for use as binoculars. But if you happen to be lucky enough to get a large size from Christmas wrapping paper, the best use is probably whacking things.

5. Dirt

One of kids’ favorite things to play with is dirt. As we grow up, we pick up an interest in cleanliness and aren’t such a fan of dirt anymore. Many parents aren't so fond of it either. But dirt has been around longer than any of the other toys on this list, and shows no signs of going away. In fact, there are some studies have shown that kids who play with dirt have stronger immune systems than those who don't.

So, what can you do with dirt? Well, it's great for digging and piling and making piles. Dirt makes a great play surface for toy trucks and cars. Just add water and—presto!—you've got mud! Dirt is definitely an outdoor toy, despite your kids' frequent attempts to bring it indoors. If they insist, you'll probably want to get the optional accessories broom and dustpan. But as long as it's kept in its proper place, dirt can be loads of fun.

The gaming industry, valued at around 257 billion US dollars as of 2024, is on a winning streak. As the pandemic ceased, the competition among gaming platforms and the abundance of game choices dominated the entertainment market.

• Approximately 3.26 billion people worldwide play video games (40% of world population).
• 89.5% of video game sales happen in the digital world.
• In 2022, there were approximately 90 billion mobile game downloads from app stores.
• People between 18 and 34 comprise 38% of gamers globally.
• By 2025, the mobile games industry will reach 138 billion US dollars.
• Around 85% of all revenue in the digital game industry comes from free-to-play games.
• 8.4% of children and teens have problems with game addiction
• Approximately 69% of US households have at least one member playing video games.
• Approximately 77% of parents play games with their children because it allows them to spend time together and to socialize with their kids.

Editor’s Note: You can read the original article which cites many more statistics from a large number of sources here.

“Now that you are retired, it’s time to play pickleball all day, every day.”

That’s the message from the front of a retirement card. It reflects the growing popularity of pickleball in the United States, especially among older adults. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the country. An article in TIME observes, “More than half (52%) of core [pickleball] players—those who play eight or more times a year—are 55 or older, and almost a third (32.7%) are 65-plus.”

If playing pickleball all day, every day isn’t your cup of tea, perhaps you’d rather have the poster that proclaims, “Retirement To Do List . . . Play Golf.”

Both the card and the poster bear witness to the popular view that retirement is mainly a time to play. For some, it’s pickleball or golf. For others, it’s cribbage or Wordle. For many retirees, travel is a delightful form of play, as is hanging out with friends or grandchildren. No matter the form it takes, play can be seen as the main point of retirement. “You worked hard for decades,” or so the story goes, “now it’s your turn to play.”

But, I wonder, is this a good way to think about retirement? If we want to flourish in this third of life—to live fully, fruitfully, and faithfully—where should play fit into our lives? Can play help us flourish? Or might it actually get in the way?

In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognized "internet gaming disorder" (IGD). Addicts play pathologically. They can't stop—they play even after their mental health and careers have suffered great harm. The WHO estimates that at least 60 million people worldwide suffer this condition. Fortnite, a combat, survival and violent online video game is the most played of all time, boasting over 500 million registered users.

Today, games are less expensive, more accessible, and more technically advanced than ever before. Psychology professor Jeffrey Derevensky, who advised the WHO panel, said, "Kids are walking around with a mini-console in their pockets. Gaming is a hidden addiction. You can't smell it on their breath and you can't see it in their eyes. And so parents are often totally unaware of what their children are doing."

Maclean's magazine writer and former addict Luc Rinaldi describes how playing, and especially winning, can meet basic needs:

I replayed Resident Evil 4 a dozen times because there's something endlessly satisfying about blowing up a zombie's head. But my favorite games were the ones that offered something my real life lacked. Exploring the fantasy world of Skyrim, I wasn't just some kid in the suburbs of Toronto; I was a noble swordsman on an epic quest to save the realm. In a video game, even a loner can feel like a king … The high was intoxicating.

The obsession runs deep. One North Carolina boy kept playing as a tornado was leveling his town. A study published in Nature showed that gaming can more than double a player's baseline dopamine levels. Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman claims that, for some players, “gaming can increase dopamine levels as much as having sex or snorting cocaine. Our brains are programmed to seek out more of these hits, which is what drives gamers to keep gaming.”

Like all addictions, there comes the inevitable crash. The trouble is that the euphoric feelings don't last. Gamers develop tolerances. They need to play more to achieve the same rush. After overloading their brains with happy signals, an equal and opposite reaction occurs. Their baseline dopamine level drops. They get angry, sad, and apathetic.

Author Lyall Watson, writing about the culture and habits of pigs, concludes that when young pigs play it is voluntary, random, and stimulated by novelty. “Jumping where there is nothing to jump over, running without going anywhere, fleeing when there is no enemy to flee from--all these are actions that lack any obvious function. They appear to be undertaken purely for pleasure.” Young wild boars chase windfall apples as readily as kittens chase balls of wool.

We call such behavior “play” and find no difficulty in recognizing it when we see it. It is easy to distinguish. An animal involved in play-fleeing or play-fighting looks very different from one seriously occupied in flight or fight. But it would be wrong to regard play just as something opposed to work. It is far more important than that.

Play is voluntary. You can’t make someone play or legislate play into being. A pig wearing a silly hat and jumping through a hoop isn’t playing. Play implies, pleasure, fun, and a definite lack of constraint. It’s something that comes more naturally to the young than it does to adults.

Play is almost certainly a complex collection of activities that are not just frivolous. The amount of time spent on it by young animals suggests that it is important; and a lack of it may impair the acquisition of vital social abilities. Play seems to be necessary for a healthy brain in pigs as well as people.

Children are spending more time than ever in front of a screen, and it doesn't necessarily bode well for their futures. In 1997, babies and toddlers age 0-2 got an average of 1.32 hours of screen time each day, Axios reports. By 2014, that number had doubled to three hours per day, and more of that time is spent in front of the TV than ever before.

Using data from a previous child development study, JAMA researchers found that children age 2 and under spent 43 percent of their screen time in front of a TV in 1997. The rest of the time was spent with video games and computers.

According to a 2023, National Library of Medicine study, at six months, children were exposed to an average of 1hr, 16 min of screens per day, increasing to an average of 2 hr, 28 min by 24-months. Some children at six months were exposed to more than 3 hr of screen time per day. Inequalities in exposure were evident as early as six months. Children from higher educated families were exposed to 1hr, 43 min fewer screens per day, compared to lower educated households, with this difference remaining consistent as children age.

"Prolonged screen time can increase risks of obesity in children and can be linked to poorer performance on developmental screening tests," Axios also notes.

The numbers for the $101 billion (2024) video game industry are astonishing:

• 190 million Americans play video games.
• 61% of the US population plays a video game at least one hour a week.
• 28% play a minimum of 1-5 hours per week.
• 21% of US adults 18-29 spent 6-10 hours playing per week.
• 8% surpass 20 hours weekly.
• The revenues collected by the industry rivals that of professional sports, motion pictures, and television.

Why the obsession? Cultural critic Frank Guan examines the gaming craze and offers some possibilities for the mania and passion.

First, "games make sense." The rules are clear to all. According to Guan, "The purpose of a game, within it, unlike in society, is directly recognized and never discounted." Second, you are always the protagonist. "Unlike with film and television, where one has to watch the acts of others, in games, one is an agent within it." And, third, they are utterly convenient. The gamer never has "to leave the house to compete, explore, commune, exercise agency, or be happy, and the game possesses the potential to let one do all of these at once." Fourth, the game might be challenging, "but in another sense it is literally designed for a player to succeed."

No wonder Guan concludes by stressing the escapist nature of video games:

"[Video games] solve the question of meaning in a world where transcendent values have vanished … We turn to games when real life fails us—not merely in touristic fashion but closer to the case of emigrants, fleeing a home that has no place for them … . Life is terrifying; why not, then, live through what you already know?"

2024 video game stats can be found here and here

Half a century ago, an upholsterer from San Francisco made a curious discovery. He was called to a cardiologist's office to reupholster some chairs in the waiting room. When he looked at the furniture, he wondered immediately what was wrong with the patients. Only the front edge of the seats and the first few inches of the armrests were worn out. "People don't wear out chairs this way," he said.

Five years later, in 1959, Drs. Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman began to put the pieces together. They had noticed an odd pattern shared by many of their cardiac patients, a pattern that centered on a "chronic sense of time urgency." Patients showed irritability at being made to wait in line, had difficulty relaxing, and were anxious over delays. Obsessed with not wasting a moment, they spoke quickly, interrupted often, hurried those around them, and were forever rushing. Hence the waiting room chairs: the patients sat on the edge of their seats, nervously fidgeting at the arms of the chairs as they watched time tick by.

The cardiologists called the new disease "hurry sickness."

According to Friedman, hurry sickness "arises from an insatiable desire to accomplish too much or take part in too many events in the amount of time available." The hurry-sick person is unable to acknowledge that he can do only a finite number of things. "As a consequence, he never ceases trying to 'stuff' more and more events in his constantly shrinking reserves of time."

We're actually born smiling. 3-D ultrasound technology now shows that developing babies appear to smile even in the womb. After they're born, babies continue to smile (initially mostly in their sleep) and even blind babies smile in response to the sound of the human voice.

An intriguing UC Berkeley 30-year longitudinal study examined the smiles of students in an old yearbook, and measured their well-being and success throughout their lives. By measuring the smiles in the photographs the researchers were able to predict: how fulfilling and long lasting their marriages would be, how highly they would score on standardized tests of well-being and general happiness, and how inspiring they would be to others. The widest smilers consistently ranked highest in all of the above.

Even more surprising was a 2010 Wayne State University research project that examined the baseball cards photos of Major League players in 1952. The study found that the span of a player's smile could actually predict the span of his life! Players who didn't smile in their pictures lived an average of only 72.9 years, while players with beaming smiles lived an average of 79.9 years.

Possible Preaching Angles: Joy—Although smiling doesn't always stem from genuine joy, at times there is certainly a connection between the joy on our face and the joy in our heart.

Researchers from the University of Missouri wanted to know how subjects behaved when parted from their iPhones, so they recruited 208 students for a survey on "media usage." The researchers used the survey to screen for iPhone users and eventually recruited a group of 41 respondents for an experiment in cell phone separation anxiety. During the study, participants were placed in a cubicle and asked to perform word search puzzles. Researchers monitored their anxiety levels, heart rate, and blood pressure while the subjects had their iPhones with them.

Then, the real experiment began. Researchers told participants that their iPhones were causing interference with the blood pressure cuff and asked them to move their phones. The phones were placed in a nearby cubicle close by. Next, the researchers called the subjects' phones while they were working on the puzzle. Immediately afterwards, they collected the same data.

The results changed dramatically. Not only did the participants' puzzle performance decline significantly while the phones were off-limits, but their anxiety levels, blood pressure and heart rates skyrocketed. One of the researchers concluded, "iPhones are capable of becoming an extension of selves such as that when separated, we experience a lessing of 'self' and a negative physiological state."

An article in More Intelligent Life magazine explores how dangerous, risk-taking activities are becoming a big business. The article notes, "Adrenaline holidays are moving from a niche market to a mainstream …. Danger is an international business." The article continues:

First there was bungee jumping, then free-running (vaulting from building to building) and BASE-jumping (parachuting off a fixed point). Now these have been joined by zorbing (rolling down slopes strapped inside a sphere) and snowkiting—the combination of kitesurfing and snowboarding. There's also coasteering—exploring shorelines without boats or ropes, swimming along the base of cliffs, clambering up rock faces, and diving into caves.

Parachutists and hang-gliders float through the skies, rock-climbers cling to sheer faces and skiers are dropped from helicopters. In the rainforests, the [daring] explore canopies on zip wires. In the oceans, we swim with sharks or free-dive without oxygen …. The Generation has given way to the Wheee Generation.

Why are we intentionally seeking out risky, fear-based activities? The article argues that it's a reaction to our sedentary, overly-safe society "where there are no dragons to slay or mastodons to hunt." A 35-year-old teacher says, "It's an escape from the mundane and the routine. If I don't [take risks] for a while, I feel prickly. I need to take those risks to feel fully human, fully alive. It's about joy and intensity." Another enthusiast says, "If we remove risk from our lives, we never find our strengths and weaknesses. We stagnate."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Negatively, this illustration shows our never-ending quest for excitement and fulfillment which requires greater and greater thrills. (2) Positively, it shows our God-given need to live lives that matter, lives that require adventure, discipline, and bold steps of faith. Ultimately this need is only met by following Christ.

The renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright once told of an incident that perhaps seemed insignificant at the time, but had a profound influence on the rest of his life. The winter he was nine-years-old, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no-nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him and pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow flight. He then pointed out young Frank's tracks, which meandered all over the field. "Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again," his uncle said. "And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in that."

Years later, Wright liked to tell how this experience greatly contributed to his philosophy of life. "I determined right then," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "not to miss most things in life, as my uncle had."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Sabbath, Rest, Relaxation, Busyness—We all need times in our lives when we can intentionally wander, rest, and live without the pressure of goals and a to-do list. (2) Prayer, Paying Attention to God—We need times when we can just be with God, without worrying about our speed or efficiency.

In his book Brandwashed, marketing guru turned consumer advocate Martin Lindstrom argues that online or video-based games can be "extraordinarily addictive." He writes:

Whether we're playing against our friends, a stranger in Tokyo, or even ourselves, and whether the objective is to beat the high score, unlock the most "badges," or build the biggest virtual farm, games are deliberately designed to be hard to quit; according to [a gaming trade publication], "extreme gamers" spend roughly two full days a week playing video games, and according to a recent Harris Interactive survey, the average eight- to twelve-year-old [gamer] plays fourteen hours of video games per week, while 8.5 percent of gamers between the ages of eight and eighteen can be classified as "pathological, or clinically 'addicted' to video games."

A true addiction is physiological, rewiring our brain in such a way that we need more and more of the substance to satisfy our craving or deliver that "high." Does playing a video or online game really qualify? According to a 1999 study, our brains do respond to game playing much the same way they do to drugs, alcohol, and fatty foods—by releasing more pleasure-inducing dopamine. In fact, the study found that any kind of repetitive activity that becomes increasingly more difficult to carry out—which is, as any gamer knows, the key to a successful game—increases the amount of dopamine in our brains. A new study [from 2010] in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that we actually get a surge of dopamine from playing games that we feel we've almost won but have lost by a small margin. When we play games … the authors of the study explain, near-miss outcomes stimulate the brain's reward system … the same thing that happens when we gamble …. And according to another study, [some games] "are designed to be filled with challenges that deliver powerfully articulated rewards, and seem engineered specifically to get a player's [dopamine] pathways (pathways that mediate interest, focus, and reward) activated and resonating" …. The thrill of the hunt! The joy of discovery! The satisfaction of scoring a deal! How could that not be addicting?

According to Lindstrom one fifteen-year-old video game addict was described this way:

He displays all the characteristics of a heroin addict. You haven't got someone putting a needle in their arm and having a high, but you've got all the telltale collateral damage of a heroin addict: withdrawal from his family, withdrawal from his friends, lies to cover his addiction. He'll do anything.

In his book Pure Pleasure, Gary Thomas reminds us that the Heavenly Father we meet in and through Jesus Christ loves to give his children gifts.

Once, while walking through a McDonald's restaurant, I saw eight ten-year-old girls celebrating a birthday. The warmth of sheer, unadulterated happiness permeated the gathering.

It was as if a light had been turned on and I could see God's delight. God felt happy that these girls were happy. Their delight, their joy, even their giddiness, gave God great pleasure. Have you ever thought about that—that you can give God great pleasure by enjoying yourself?

If you're a parent, imagine Christmas morning as the young kids tear into presents. Does anything make you happier? Don't moments like these break into the dull routines of life and give us a glimpse of heaven?

The fact that we are children of God—and that Jesus urges us to become like children—speaks of a certain demeanor, a certain delight, a certain trust in God's goodness and favor toward us. While God's servants are not merely his children (he also calls us to sacrificial and mature service), we never become less than his children.

Researcher Mark Bellis of Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, England, collected statistics concerning 1,064 rock stars from the United States and Europe between the 1950s and the present. His conclusions suggest that, statistically, rock stars really do die younger than the general population. The average age at death for American rockers was 42; for Europeans, 35.

Partying, transportation accidents, and mental instability were the primary contributors to causes of death.

If only adults showed as much sound judgment as an infant! Through a series of tests, Yale University's Infant Cognition Center has found that babies as young as six to ten months old know what's right and wrong. Researchers sat babies down in front of a roller coaster-like track to watch a cartoon-eyed wooden toy try to climb its way to the top of one of the hills. As the toy climbed, other toys were designed to come along to either help it over the hump or push it backwards like a bully. When babies were then given the opportunity to play with any of the toys on the track, nearly every infant chose the toys that helped out. When researchers introduced neutral toys that weren't involved in the experiment at all, the babies still turned their backs on the bullies.

What's especially fascinating is that researchers believe the human qualities of the toy that was trying its best to climb the hill—the googly, cartoonish eyes—were what stirred a sense of loyalty from the babies. When researchers removed the eyes to make it less human, the children did not exercise the same level of judgment.

"It's incredibly impressive that babies can do this," said study lead author Kiley Hamlin. "It shows that we have these essential social skills occurring without much explicit teaching."