[EF#15] How Game Change Through Time

If we talk about game, especially for kids, we can see how game change through time to time. Game world is evolving due to improvement in technology and it has affected the behavior of the users, including kids. It is a reality, where the children nowadays prefer to do gaming activities inside their house, unlike the old days where many children were taking their game outside and in group.

Yes, not all children doing the same thing – playing inside their house but we can see them in the big city, such as Jakarta, many children now prefer to stay inside to play their game console instead. Even if they go out with their family or friends, they tend to sit and look down to their console or phone. Let’s compare to the old days, when I was a kid.

We were happily outside playing Petak Umpet (hide and seek), Galasan, Gundu (marbels), Layang-layang (kites flying), and many others outdoor activities. We would gather in a playground or someone’s house-yard to play about one to two hours each day before mothers called us to start doing our homework. That’s how the old days look like. We can even see the line-marks due to our drawing for playing those games. Yes, we did some games inside the house sometimes, such as when we played cards, but we did it together with our friends.

Due to the evolution of technology, the gaming world also got its impact. The new technologies is allowing us to do game online, only need a computer (or smart phone or tablet) and an internet connection, we can access the game anytime and everywhere we want. Many developers now look into the mobile applications development and many also develop game that is most wanted among all mobile applications. Just see the Top Free Hit List from Google Play (Android-based) below, in number 13 and number 16 are two games that most downloaded apps, and if you go through top 50, you can find at least 15 of them are game applications.

With the technology, many children now preferred to play games on their mobile instead. Yes, they also gathered sometimes but when they do, each of them was looking down to their mobile playing those games. We can’t point out the technology as the trouble maker of course. Technology was and is intended to help humankind to have a better life, but we, human, tend to take it to the wrong directions. And when all things got messy, we just say: “That’s because the technology, it makes us lazy, makes us individualist, etc.”

We, human, are the creator of technology that exist today. If we compared the old days where we can live without an advance technology as today, we should be able to do it again. But then again, we create technology to help us, to make our life better, so why should we go backward just because technology now is abused badly. Be the man who take in charge of your life. If you see your children not as active as others or lack of social interactions like you used to, take the control back. Define the technology used by your family, make the policy, and the most important is show your kids an example – because kids are good in replicate what others around them do.

One of the factors that change in-game from time to time is technology. It does affected game behavior of our children, but technology is only one factors that actually we, human can control. So, let’s take responsibility of how game change from time to time due to technology. We are the master of our own life, choose which life we want for ourselves and for our children, take control of it.

Technology is created for making a better life by human. If human created it, human can control it and even deleted it. Are you willing to take control of it? Or let the technology controls you and your family?

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This post is submitted for English Friday Challenge from Blog English Club. The 15th theme of the challenge is writings our own opinion about Children Games Now And Then. If you interest to join the club or join the challenge, please click the link above for more detail.