ATHY HIRSH-PASEK thinks Americans have finally reached a tipping point in their collective level of self-imposed misery. Neuroscientists, educators and psychologists like Hirsh-Pasek know that play is as an essential ingredient in the lives of adults as well as children. A weighty and growing body of evidence—spanning evolutionary biology, neuroscience and developmental psychology—has in recent years confirmed the centrality of play to human life. Not only is it a crucial part of childhood development and learning but it is also a means for young and old alike to connect with others and a potent way of supercharging creativity and engagement. Play is so fundamental that neglecting it poses a significant health risk.
And yet Americans have been squeezing playtime out of their busy schedules for years—the average adult now logs more hours at work than a 14th-century English peasant. Although this trend was underway long before the pandemic struck, the two years of fear, illness and death that followed drove the nation’s level of loneliness and isolation to intolerable levels. Hirsh-Pasek, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a bestselling author, thinks the ordeal may have pushed already work-weary Americans over the brink—to the point where they are finally revising their attitudes toward work and play for the better. “People need joy in their lives,” she says.
The signs, she says, are everywhere. In two post-pandemic years, nearly 50 million people quit their jobs, inspiring Beyoncé’s single, “Break My Soul.” (“I just quit my job…Imma let down my hair ‘cause I lost my mind.”) Adults turned with fervor to jigsaw puzzles and coloring books and began playing with Legos, dolls and action figures, leading toy makers to carve out a new market for “Kidults.” In 2022, this group, defined as ages 12 and older, accounted for one fourth of all toy sales—$9 billion worth. That same year, more than 215 million Americans—mostly adults—reported playing video games. Summer camps for adults, where they go to hike, zip line and learn to cook or paint, have proliferated.
Hirsh-Pasek, meanwhile, has noticed an uptick in interest, along with publicity and post-pandemic funding, for city programs to expand “playful learning landscapes”—an innovative way to inject some fun into everyday spaces like bus stops, supermarkets and doctors’ waiting rooms. Twelve cities in the U.S. (including Chicago; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Seattle; and Tulsa, Oklahoma) and 10 abroad
