The Play Paradigm

Friedman refers to play as an active thing that people carry out. This makes sense as playing is something you must actively participate in. However, he goes on to think of situations, other than games, that people might play. I found it interesting how he applied play to watching movies. People typically make a distinction in movie watching versus playing games where in a movie, you passively participate. Friedman pointed out that play is simply a time where we can let our imagination experience a new or different world. This got me thinking back to film theory where we talked about film watching being an active experience, not passive. Most films expect the viewer to participate by actively thinking about the film, connections characters have to things, and where the plot might go next without the film maker explicitly addressing these things.

Friedman also addressed how play can be applied to most everyday life, especially things like social interactions. With his definition of play, anytime we are actively using our imagination, it is a form of play. “Social interactions are performances.” I feel like I have thought of this to a degree before. We sometimes are acting our social interactions versus passively participating in them.