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Toy Story: Evolution of Toys


I watched a TV documentary Tuesday  night and learnt something about toys. According to the show, the material for toys started off being celluloid, and then metals were used as the material for toys followed by plastic; this was the 3-stage evolution of toys according to the show.
After watching, I thought I would like to add a fourth stage which is the current stage of toys: Electronic: plastic has evolved into electronic. Nowadays, children love to play with electronic game gadgets and those games on mobile phone applications like Angry Birds.
But most importantly, I found that toys have evolved into something not as tangible as the previous generations of toys. Toys have now become mental, visual and emotional simulation caused by electronic programming on a small and fixed medium (like iphone or computer). I believe such a trend is akin to returning back to the very basic. In the past, children also seek their own thrills and simulation of the mind and emotions from the making of simple acts of games like a wooden rubber shooter with just a twig and few pieces of string. Games now are like in the past, acts of imagination; in the past, children imagine their own games and create them and now mobile applets developers imagine and create games for mass consumption.

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