by : Nurshahirah binti Azman
Do you still remember that one moment during your childhood where
you went outside, and played with your fellow friends? That one time where
technology isn’t a synonym to leisure times, instead it is all about going
outside and enjoy the fun being with your friends, playing no matter if it was
hot under the sun or it was drizzling. The time when your mother would run
after you with a stick in her hand just to get you home because you just do not
want to stop playing with your friends yet.
Playing cook
with all the unused cooking utensils on the ground is something so popular
among kids during that time. Also, even with our own slippers we can play hitting
the can with slippers, or even playing the ‘baling selipar’ where you’ll throw
a slipper onto the built slippers and then catch the opponent. Or even jumping
the rope made of elastic bands, playing hide and seek, home-made kite-flying, ‘lompat
tikus’ and ‘galah panjang’ where you’ll need to pass different kinds of level
to win the game, and many more. Aren’t all of this call back all those memories
of your childhood and made you feel like you have had the best childhood memory
ever?
That was the
time where we all have no single idea about computer games, let alone those
gadgets that are totally popular nowadays and had replaced mostly all of these
exciting games that we played when we were little back then. It is quite sad thing to know that kids nowadays rarely
go out to play like how we did before. With the advancement in technology, the
gadgets like hand-phone, tablets and laptops are increasing in number and usage.
Don’t be surprised if you find 5 months old baby is able to unlock a tablet
screen and knows where to tap on the game application.
Kids nowadays
rarely go out of the house and mingle with friends in a real social life.
Instead, they are ‘trapped’ inside the house, and just ‘link’ themselves with
the outside world through the internet, via the social networking sites. Most
of their leisure times are spent on playing games on their gadgets. That is one
of the reasons on why these kids became clueless when they’re asked on what
kind of real games they play with their friends outside the house. Ask them
about any of those childhood games we played, most of them have no idea on what
are those games about.
The rapid
advancement in technology is admitted to be something that we are proud of, it
symbolizes the modernized community that we are living in. However, if this
kind of lifestyle is to be introduced to every single children, these kids will
never know what’s the real excitement in being children where you’re supposed
to go out and adventure the world, mix around with friends and explore new things
before you figure out how challenging being a grown-up is. At this point,
parents and the society hold the biggest responsibility to change this kind of childhood lifestyle before it affects the younger generation.
..because we can't let their childhood to be like this, or even worse in the future..
