Analog world v digital world - time to go retro?

My grandma often used to chuckle “if you hold on to something long enough, it’ll come back in fashion”. I’m not sure I fully appreciated this at the time but now (a few years on!) I’m beginning to see the wisdom of these words.

This morning on Radio 2’s breakfast show with Chris Evans I was excited (and pretty amazed) to hear that his family had got rid of their TV and on a Sunday afternoon they enjoyed playing board games instead. I was thrilled to hear this because it is a subject close to my heart; in fact it is what my business is built on. The idea of parents and children spending time together making memories I believe has lasting effects in a child’s life equipping them for adulthood in a much more meaningful way than the TV or console 'babysitter' ever will.

There was an interesting documentary series on BBC2 a couple of years ago called ‘Back in time for the weekend’. This series allowed a family to spend some time in each decade (from 1950’s until the present day) experiencing what was on offer for leisure time. Surprisingly the most popular decades with the children were the 1970’s and 80’s. They said that they enjoyed doing activities together as a family and they felt they had a degree of freedom in these decades. They reported feeling that the family didn’t spend as much time together in subsequent decades due to the introduction and accessibility of computers.

I am certainly not against the digital age it’s opened up new worlds to us all (I certainly wouldn’t be able to publish this little rant without it) but maybe we shouldn’t be throwing the baby out with the bath water. Let’s hold on to the retro notion of playing games, going for walks, experiencing the outdoors and even maybe watching a programme or film together in the same room (I know, pretty way out eh?).

Anyone for scrabble or one of my personal favourites: The Amazing Robot?