(by Daniela Giammusso) Getting the kids off their devices could be easier than expected.
After a winter spent repeating "put that thing down," or "no Game Boy at the table," and "have you finished your homework before turning on the computer?" all it took was to bring them to the beach, and a miracle happened. Even the most technology-dependent kids, the ones to whom you'd say "you'll make a job out of that when you grow up" or "let's hope that you at least have Bill Gates' talent," went back to being just kids, in less than an afternoon.
With sand and sea salt as the accomplices, tablets, smartphones and consoles stay at home and old-fashioned games come back into vogue. The games are the ones that we all played and that, incredible, have managed to resist trends and generations of change. Classics include: tracks etched in the sand with a chair, made for marbles with faces of champions drawn on them; sand volcanoes (that won't manage to emit smoke this year either); bocce balls; and foosball at the coffee bar where the 'pinwheels' for making goals don't count, but still everyone does it.
Cards spread on the beach towel, Pokemon in place of football player trading cards, but still traded sitting on beach chairs, or capture the flag at sunset, with dad holding the bandana in the middle. And so, summer turns into a healthy digital detox for kids, who come out of their isolated virtual reality bubble.
It's the same way for adults.
Between a newspaper and a novel, the "games from way back when" fever, under the beach umbrella, infects everyone just a little bit.
A study for the Gingerino Mix Tour campaign suggested that eight out of 10 Italians between the ages of 18 to 60 prefer spending their free time with old-fashioned games - above all for their social value. The top games included foosball, darts, and playing cards.
Our children, in a perfect mix between technology and curiosity for the past, are no exception.
That is mostly due to the company of grandparents, which becomes daily or even full-time during vacation, making them true partners in fun and discovery, even if it's just for card games like briscola and scopa.
"Play helps to bring generations together and make them interact," said Francesca Antonacci, researcher in the Department of Human Sciences of the University of Milano-Bicocca.
"It brings people together who are far apart because it belongs more to a state of mind rather than a chronological age.
And, above all, because it can connect the "free" generations, those who aren't pressed by work obligations, such as children and grandparents, " Antonacci said.
According to 90% of those interviewed in the study, it's grandparents who pass down the old-fashioned games to their grandchildren, followed by parents and aunts and uncles.
But don't worry if this year you've chosen the mountains or a week of camping for your holidays. Board games such as Monopoly and Subbuteo are also well-loved, followed by hide-and-seek, hopscotch and marbles, all of which are just as good for the beach as they are for the squares of a small mountain town.
And if, under the calm of the umbrella, you think back to last winter, maybe it's not surprising that the Gingerino study shows that time for play with family and friends is decreasing.
One Italian out of two can't find even 15 minutes a day, and 35% find just two hours a week for play, the study said.
But when the survey participants were asked to go back to their childhood memories, 75% said their first thoughts were of childhood games, those they played with their friends outside and the pranks they played on siblings and cousins.
And so, perhaps, for one day we'll put down that tablet that we take with us hidden in our beach bag between the towels and sunscreen. Maybe for once it's worth it even as adults to play with the children and the grandparents.
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