When you were a kid, did you ever look out of the window on a long road trip while listening to music and envision yourself in a music video? Did you ever climb all over your living room furniture because you thought the floor was lava and you didn’t want to touch it? All of these things were due to our young, naïve minds. We embraced these thoughts because they were fun to think about and it made things interesting.
I was sitting on the couch this past Saturday and had the urge to watch Disney movies. I proceeded to go to the Disney Wikipedia page, looked at the multitude of titles and decided to watch "Bridge to Terabithia." When this movie came out, I was around the age of 10 and had an imagination that could keep me preoccupied for hours. For those who haven’t seen this movie, the two main characters Jesse and Leslie, a boy and a girl, create an imaginary world of their own in the woods next to their houses. In one of their many escapades, they were walking to their treehouse and started to get attacked by Squogers, which is an animal that is half-squirrel and half-ogre. Jesse and Leslie eventually defeated the squogers and were able to make it back to their treehouse. Most of the scenes that are in this movie aren’t real and are the result of their imagination.
While I was watching this movie, I questioned many of the things that were happening and realized how much I have matured. My imagination has really changed. I know that is all a part of the process of growing up, but most people don’t realize that you don’t have to grow up. You can still remain a kid at heart and enjoy life like a child would.
In the past, due to the lack of technology, our brains were wired to be more creative and focused. In today’s society, there is research that states that technology is changing our brains to scan information more rapidly and efficiently. As said by Jim Taylor in his article in Psychology Today, “The bottom line is that too much screen time and not enough other activities, such as reading, playing games, and good old unstructured and imaginative play, will result in your children having their brains wired in ways that may make them less, not more, prepared to thrive in this crazy new world of technology.”
Remember that having kids play outside is just as, if not more, vital in today’s society than in past generations.
