The Play Deficit

CounterPlay has always been interested in playfulness all over society and the world; everywhere.

…but damn, play is SO much more important than most people think. It's not always the solution, but it's always relevant, everywhere.

— Mathias Poulsen (@mathiaspoulsen) June 5, 2015

We want to go beyond games, beyond play as an activity, also exploring the meaning of being playful. We want to cultivate playfulness where there is none, and we want to explore what happens when we do.

Now we’re working on becoming more than “just” the annual festival, and as part of that process, we want to identify some of the least playful parts of society:

Where in society / life do you think playfulness is in seriously short supply? Where do you see "play deficits"?

— Mathias Poulsen (@mathiaspoulsen) June 2, 2015

Peter Gray argues quite convincingly that school is one of the areas with a huge play deficit and with enormous consequences:

To the degree that we take away play, we deprive children of the ability to practise adulthood, and we create people who will go through life with a sense of dependence and victimisation, a sense that there is some authority out there who is supposed to tell them what to do and solve their problems. That is not a healthy way to live.

Which areas of society do you think would benefit the most from having a larger concentration of playful people? What happens if don’t allow or support play more consistently? How can we do it?

Let us hear from you in the comments below or in the CounterPlay group on Facebook!