Play is a skill too

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Choi Hoon

The author is a professor at Hallym University

May feels especially fresh this year, perhaps because it began with the gift of a holiday. During this stretch, my children played to their hearts’ content. But their phones and computers were always in their hands. Was this really the kind of play they needed? 

The Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga described human beings as Homo ludens — “man the player.” Through play, people form relationships, learn rules, cultivate imagination and create culture. How dreadful would life be if we did nothing but work, without ever playing?

And yet, despite the importance of play, I have never properly learned how to do it. I was repeatedly taught how to use time efficiently to study and work, but no one ever taught me how to play. So how should we play? 

In psychology, good play is often explained through the lens of self-determination theory. The theory holds that people grow in the healthiest and happiest ways when three needs are met: a sense that they are making their own choices, or autonomy; a belief that they can accomplish something, or competence; and a feeling of connection with others, or relatedness.

The same applies to play. Even with the same game, one played joyfully with friends while devising strategies together can foster relatedness and competence. But a game that begins simply because there is nothing else to do, then drags on until dawn under the pull of dopamine, becomes not play but labor. The same is true of exercise. A workout joyfully pursued toward a goal one has chosen for oneself can be good play. But exercise done for a social media photo, or driven by self-loathing, is nothing more than self-punishment. 

In that sense, what we do for play may matter less than how we play.

Human beings have always drawn life’s energy from play. Perhaps what students need now is not more instruction on how to study or work, but a chance to discover the feeling of “good play” — the kind that lets them enjoy themselves without guilt, become absorbed in the moment and feel fully alive. 

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.