When I was younger, I remember that sport was an essential part of life. I played cricket, Indoor and Outdoor, racquet ball, went to the Gym and played Golf. It seemed that sport was the drug and life was my addiction.
Then as it happens, we all need to grow up. We get a job, focus on paying the bills and before we know it our waist bands are expanding and the only time we catch up with our mates is to have a beer and too talk about work.
I was around one of my friends houses the other night and he had just purchased a WII. Before we knew it all the boys were engaged in a furious battle of who could get the highest score in bowling or get the quickest score in Mario Cart. All of a sudden the heart rate was up, blood was pumping and it seemed that everyone was having a great time.
It got me thinking. Is this the new era of sport? Are the days of playing footy in the park, swimming down in the local river, or just riding the pushy down to the shops gone? Is fishing just a past time reserved for day long expeditions to reefs off the coast or do people just go and drop a line at their local lake for the fun of it?
I think that E sports has actually had a positive effect on the way that people think about sport and the mental and physical effects of being healthy. At the end of the day if playing a game of WII tennis encourages one person to get off their backside and begin to take afternoon walks with their families, then it is definitely beneficial to the individual and to society.
According to Child Obesity (2006) there is an estimated 1.5 million people under the age of 18 that are considered overweight or obese. I believe that finding a balance between fitness within the digital world and fitness within the natural world needs to combine to tackle this ever increasing problem.
We need to get back to the basics and get outside but at the same time we need to embrace technology because division on this subject divides the younger generations from the ever increasing older generations.soon it becomes the parents who are too busy, wondering why their children are becoming more and more unhealthy.
As technology evolves we need to realise that our lives will be forever changing as our digital world grows and becomes more and more a part of us. We also need to realise that getting back to basics is always fun and can be enjoyed just as much as playing onlline poker or Angry Birds.
Give us your thoughts on this subject and how technology has made its was into your sporting life.
The balance is not easily found, as the current generation is quickly becoming the "instant" generation. We're all wanting things to come to fruition almost instantly, and the digital world is providing us with a means to feel accomplishment with little to no work.
ReplyDeleteAlbeit the accomplishment is only truly viable within said world, it still creates a large desire to obtain within the young ones. The other thing as well is that as a whole, we may have become a "nanny-world". There are safety precautions about everything, and you are constantly battered with laws and rules that govern fun.
What the older generation grew up with as fun has largely become unavailable to the young ones, except, of course, in the case of sports.
Problem with sports nowadays is that it is either too hard to get into, or there aren't enough people to create a reasonable competition, so those who are in it for fun lose interest.
Well said maybe the problem is that most sports that people watch nowadays, have become a business. Perhaps along the way people forgot that the reason you play any sport originally is to have fun.
ReplyDeleteThat I feel can be the problem with modern society, people don't know how to be patient or how to have a laugh.