Barriers and Constraints of Play, Essay Example

Most people probably don’t think of high school students as still taking part in play like they did when they were younger. Though these teens may call it something different, they still enjoy playing with friends even if the types of play have changed since they were children. However, while high school students like having fun and playing, there are a lot of things that are constraints that limit how much they can play or barriers that prevent them from playing.

In my own life there are several constraints limiting the amount of time I can play. One constraint is feeling like I have to act like an adult. I think that a lot is expected of high school students today and that adults expect us to act like we are older than teenagers. Getting silly, joking around with friends, and playing jokes on each other is seen as immature by adults. This means we always have to keep everything toned down and under control.

Another constraint is my responsibilities. Even though my friends and I are only teenagers we have a lot more responsibilities than teenagers used to have. This limits the amount of time for play, fun and being with friends. When responsibilities overlap something fun that I’ve planned I know if I don’t take care of what I’m supposed to first, I will get in trouble and the punishment will probably either increase my responsibilities or limit my play time even more.

A final constraint is limited freedom. Since I’m still a minor, I’m not always allowed to make my own decisions about what to do or when to do it. I might make plans with friends but my mom might decide I need to be home earlier than we planned or that I have to come home early because something I’ve done she doesn’t like.

There are also several barriers to play in my life. One barrier is being made fun of. Sometimes even though I want to do something I used to love doing like playing board games or going to an arcade with friends and seeing who gets the highest score, whenever I’ve tried to get friends to play these games with me made fun of me and teased me. That made me quite asking them to play those games with me.

A second barrier is being online. A lot of times even though I have plans with friends, I get caught up in something online and lose track of time. If I realize in time I usually just email my friends that I can’t come and then go back to what I was doing. Friends do the same to me for the same reasons.

A final barrier is limited transportation. There are a lot of fun things my friends and I would like to do but we can’t get transportation regularly or know that we do in enough time to plan some things. This prevents us from being able to do some of the things we want to do. A lot of kids my age don’t have available transportation or if they do they don’t have the money to use it regularly such as buying gas or using public transportation. This blocks us from being able to go some fun places because they are too far away or public transportation doesn’t go there.