Play is on the extinction list. Could Hasbro help?

[ManaMinori 4,146]

source: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-play-deficit

Play is crucial for learning valuable skills, when we're young just, like any other animal. Schools can't teach these things, but with changing times and more 'adulting' pressed on kids- more time spent on schoolwork, shorter summer vacations, fears of parents preventing kids from going out and play unsupervised, etc. children's playtime is constantly being chipped away.

Quote

Over the same decades that children’s play has been declining, childhood mental disorders have been increasing. It’s not just that we’re seeing disorders that we overlooked before. Clinical questionnaires aimed at assessing anxiety and depression, for example, have been given in unchanged form to normative groups of schoolchildren in the US ever since the 1950s. Analyses of the results reveal a continuous, essentially linear, increase in anxiety and depression in young people over the decades, such that the rates of what today would be diagnosed as generalised anxiety disorder and major depression are five to eight times what they were in the 1950s. Over the same period, the suicide rate for young people aged 15 to 24 has more than doubled, and that for children under age 15 has quadrupled.

As a toy company, do you guys think Hasbro might be willing or able to make any kinds of change to bring play back as a necessity? Not just with toys, but encouraging outdoor play and skills for crucial development as well? How can this aspect be reflected in their toyline, going forward?

Edited January 31, 2019 by Nightmare Muffin

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

I don't think there's an easy solution to this.  While we know where the problem is coming from, trying to convince parents to give play time back to their kids is a hard one. 

[Ganondorf8 11,432]

It's a difficult subject to provide an answer for it due to how much has changed over time when it comes to the family dynamic. Most parents these days are content with their children staring at a computer--or similar--screen instead of going outside, playing with toys, and whatever else can be used as a good example. With how life has evolved in terms of technology, stress, commitment, and so on, they just don't have time for their children as they are more concerned with their own careers and not being bogged down. Hasbro could potentially do something about this, but it might be too late for them to do anything.

[ExplosionMare 18,106]

They could make more ponies on sports equipment or make ponies that are meant to be played with outside.

[EpicEnergy 23,240]

As @Bas and @Ganondorf8 mentioned, I doubt that lessened childhood play is the primary cause of mental disorders in children. There are many other factors that are also probably significantly affecting the mental state of children and teens, such as their increased usage of electronical devices (tablets, phones, consoles). What should also be considered is the increased usage of drugs, medications, and alcoholic beverages by teenagers, all of which can be severely detrimental to mental health especially in large consumptions. Another cause that can be attributed to the significantly increased suicidal rate in children less than 15 years old is bullying. Also, another thing is the environment in which children are raised and the way they are raised, because divorces, abuse (directed towards to child or the mother or both), bullying, child neglect, no father or no mother, and so forth are also becoming very frequent and can severely affect a child's mental health. Despite all that I said, I can't say how much each factor I mentioned affects the mental state of children, but I can say that each factor does play some part regardless, so lessened childhood play is not likely to be the primary cause of mental disorders in children. Not that lessened childhood play isn't a severe problem at all, I found the article in the provided link to very informative (despite disagreeing in a few minor areas).

Anyways, to answer the question in the OP, I think Hasbro is capable of increasing traditional childhood play, and it does. However, Hasbro also seems to be focused on developing apps suitable for modern day childhood play (electronic devices), as indicated by the recent announcement of the upcoming MLP app "Pocket Ponies".

[Partialgeek514 5,011]

The increase in mental illness is pretty bad. Perhaps it's more than just playtime that needs to be more encouraged. Kids also need more family time, more time with parents, and friends that are mature and responsible enough to not get into serious trouble. Perhaps what needs to be strengthened most of all is the family. 

[heavens-champion 1,905]

People don't want to play outside anymore. They only way people can go back outside was if a massive EMP sent human civilization back to the stone age. Or, the 17th century. Until then, play time is over...

 

Edited October 8, 2024 by heavens-champion

[Lucky Bolt 35,106]

Wait...is this a toy brand, or.....?