Today, with the popularization of personal electronic products such as computers and smart phones, children spend their spare time in the virtual world for entertainment. Many people, especially people of middle age, argue that playing outside with friends or with simple toys would be better for children's development. As a young man born in the digital age, I agree with this point of view. My reasons are listed as follows:
First, there are social researches showing those children who spend most of their spare time on computers or smart phones have a weaker sociability than other children. The communication online is totally different than that occurs in the real world. It's less limited, simpler and usually short-term. Children usually talk with a netizen for temporary happiness and seldom intend to keep along term relationship online and they don't need to care about the social situation in the relationship, which is much more complex in the real world.Once children are accustomed to such simplified ways of communication, they will feel uncomfortable when communicating with real people. On the other hand,children who usually play with their friends are possible to be faced with conflict, thus they learn to solve the problem through communication. Thus，playing with friends better helps children form sociability than playing with machines.
Second, exposed to the alternative information on the internet, which may contain violence and fakeness, children are more susceptible than adults and are not able to judge. There are many children in my country that imitate dangerous behaviors that they have seen on YouTube and get injured. In other cases, some children become violent when they grow up. As a double-edged sword, information technology brings us not only access to copious knowledge, but also access to darkness. Spending more time in real world learning about this society helps children to build a more solid view of the world, and become less vulnerable to the dark information. Hence, playing in real world gives children the ability of judgement and avoid danger from the internet.
Last but not least, much like real relationships,games in the physical world are much more complicated and copious than those in digital world. Thus, children can understand the natural world comprehensively through their interaction. During my childhood, I enjoyed watching a TV documentary "Discovery" from which I learned a lot about nature.However, the sense of curiosity and adventure I felt when I was playing in the natural park with my friend is much stronger and more vivid. That's because the real nature contains much information including smell, visual, aural and tactile, while through the TV I couldn't get such comprehensive feeling. Real world games and their physical environment give children a comprehensive understanding of the nature.
In conclusion, though technology brings children a new way of entertainment, playing in the real world is irreplaceable. It creates a real situation for children to understand the world and learn to live in the society.