Board Games Make a Comeback

“There’s something special about breaking free from screens and spending real, face-to-face time with family and friends—and that’s why our guests are loving the ever-growing board game trend. We’re out to make Target their go-to destination for great games, so over the past couple of years, we’ve more than doubled our assortment and we’re constantly working with the nation’s leading game makers to create even more unique, exclusive games for our guests to enjoy with those they love.” -Kelly Caruso, senior vice president of Hardlines, Target

In 2018 Target released a collection of board games with what they decided to call the “rustic edition.” I hadn’t even known there was such a thing until Christmas of last year. My best friend asked me for one of these games as a gift. He told me how he had recently begun to collect all of these vintage games from Target’s Rustic Edition, and how these board games had become one of his prized possessions. 

            The article for this week’s reading reminded me of my friend. There is a nostalgic feel to things like the article mentions; journals, old school cameras, vinyl records, board games. These items that are disconnected from the online world and cause us to use our senses and be involved and giving our full attention to something outside of our phones. 

            Our digital world has caused us to lose a feeling of connection. There are millions of gamers who talk on their headsets, and may even play with the same people on a regular basis but still feel disconnected from others when they turn off the screen. This was the reason I recently invested $80 into a new board game called Catan. I had begun to notice how connected to our devices my siblings and I would be when visiting our parents. I had read an article about this game and decided to purchase it and bring it over for a family get together. The game was a hit. We barely looked at our phones the entire night. Instead we laughed, argued, and got way too competitive. Now it’s one of our favorite things to do together and we constantly find ourselves looking for group activities we can enjoy that unplug us and our kids even more. 

Sax’s views in this article are not comparable to Luddism in my opinion, rather a stand on what it is to be balanced and finding value in things outside of the digital vortex.