Opinion

Wake up! Our children do not play anymore

January 29, 2019
Wake up! Our children do not play anymore

Abdo Khal

Okaz

ONE of the famous American toy companies closed down its factories recently. The owner made a brief announcement apologizing to customers for closing down the factories and not producing more toys. He said he had to stop production because the children were not playing with toys anymore.

This is a very serious matter and is scary at the same time. For an international giant that was manufacturing toys on all five continents to announce that it was leaving the market means that there was something great happening.

This announcement is historic and we should analyze it from a social point of view and find out what are the real reasons behind the stoppage. We need to analyze the timing in which this toy company stopped production.

One of the basic elements of childhood is toys and the love for them. Why did this company sound the alarm?

With this announcement the toy company sounded the alarm for us to wake up from our current slumber. The world needs to wake up because the time is different now. The time is running out fast. In the past, change was slow and societies that were behind could easily catch up. With the advancement of technology, all societies are on the same level.

Our children grew up with knowledge. If we measure the knowledge gap between us and our children, we will find out that they are the ones controlling our technical lives. Technology and social media created a different world. It was so advanced that many of the existing things are considered extinct, such as the normal toys. Since our children were born in this advanced age, they have excelled and progressed dramatically. They are no more interested in traditional toys, because they believe it will slow them down.

Children these days have their own culture. Many companies have noticed the signs and closed down their factories to send a message to the world that the children of today are different from the children of yesterday. I am for creating new policies that care for studying the effects of technology on children and provide them with what is suitable for their advancement.

Sadly, the Arab world did not reach the stage of manufacturing classical toys and therefore they could not notice the fast changes taking place in the world of children.

You will not believe that only recently we decided to print stories for children, which is a step that is considered very late.


January 29, 2019
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