playplay
there's no extensive evidence that it's not healthy, and by default everything is 'healthy', if the kid is happy, along with the various other metrics, then they are healthy
games can be a toy, but most video games are not toys, and almost all are designed to be competitive. toys are not competitive things
play is not about it being healthy or not, it's about if play is desirable or not
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as 'kirion25' wonders in their comment, the problem is that almost nobody knows anything about play
for example one person mentions activities/functions that is leisure, and not everything within leisure is play (play is a subset of leisure)
nobody knows if there's any decline or incline in play, where's the extensive evidence that of play's claimed decline?
tho only the rare & remarkable ppl are at the leading edge of that (as is the case with anything else in society)
this mega-problem of there being insufficient spaces for play in our current society is undeniably a human crisis (tho this likely has always been the case as 'play' as a concept is relatively new in the history of ideas)
if or not there's less overall spaces for play relative to the past is unknown, and it would seem supa difficult to get data on. but if anyone has extensive evidence on the topic, i'll like to see the links
it's likely accurate that most places in 2019 has this problems (that kids dont play outside). but there are also places, including within cities, where kids do run around and play on the roads
i'd say the contingency of this affordance is based on how good of an area you live in to be able to give this privilege of play to kids, as well as everyone else in society