It’s no secret that America’s largest export is culture. (Okay also petroleum but this isn’t called Live 2 Frack, now is it?) Americans have a long-standing obsession with distracting ourselves, and it’s only going to get...wait, have you seen this TikTok with the guys filling up the glass of water?

As part of Starcom’s ongoing Cultural Exploration series, we wanted to investigate how Americans play, and what that can teach us about where we are heading culturally. If culture can be argued to be “all the things people do, that they don’t HAVE to do” then play and culture are almost inseparable. We conducted two primary surveys (one of parents about their kids and one of adults about themselves), and focus groups (one with a cohort of men to understand their attitudes towards play, one with parents of young children to explore the uneasy relationship that exists between parent, kids, play and technology). Our research built on dozens of previous studies and data sets we pored through, giving us confirmation on some established truths about adult and kid play.

Please read the full report here.