What can present single children do if they are isolated from television and internet? To Shi Yingjie, a senior high school student in Shanghai, she could hardly find anything else interesting but staring blankly, reading some books, shopping, making phone calls, or sleeping. She felt "depressed," "mentally painful," and even "hates the guy who does the survey on her." When the survey finally ended, Shi indulged herself in television and internet. Once, she even played online games until five in the morning.

Shi Yingjie and 23 other students in Shanghai recently participated in a survey jointly organized by the Shanghai Zhabei Party Propagating Committee and the Fudan University School of journalism. The activity wants to find out what children can do when they are not allowed to watch television or play online games in a week's time. Children under survey were divided into three groups, those who cannot watch television, those who cannot play online games and those who cannot do either of them.

"I am so sad to find that I could hardly do anything if I don't watch TV or play games," said one of the students later. A week is not long, however, for these students, they might experience a "lifetime" challenge because most of them like watching TV or playing games during the spare time.

Lu Ye, professor of the Fudan University school of journalism and also tutor of the PhD students, help organized the activity. After reading students diaries of the one week, she found several problems: most children did not do many outdoor activities or play with their mates; there is lack of public equipments or public places for children to play; and students should cultivate more hobbies.

All children that took the survey are the only son or daughter in their family. An American friend once told Lu that the biggest difference between Chinese children and American children was that American children like to play outside while Chinese children do not; Chinese parents often scold their children while American parents seldom do so.

The American woman said she had moved to many places in the U.S. and every time she moved, her child could quickly adapt to the new environment. What is the secret? "When her child takes a basketball out, other children will soon come to play together," Lu explained, "for Chinese children, however, they spend most of their time playing at home by themselves, playing piano, do some reading or painting, etc, as their parents told them to do so."

Source: Chinanews