“I wish...” Nikola thought for himself as he entered the house, looking down.
He tossed his school bag away, sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote.
The next day was a bit more cheerful for him. It would always happen like that. Every morning, he would feel that childlike joy. However, as the day went by, his mood would change.
At school, one day during the break between classes, he looked around and thought: “Another identical day; it’s boring. I would like to play football.” And then he started dreaming unconsciously, imagining the same situation every day.
He would be running across a large football pitch together with his friends, kicking the ball as if there were no tomorrow and laughing like never before.
And it would happen a lot.
Sometimes they would play marbles, sometimes ball games, sometimes hide-and-seek…
At the end of the break, he approached a friend from his class. “Hi Filip, what are you listening to?” “That new song,” his friend replied, showing him the video on his mobile phone. “It goes something like: ‘I am rich, I have a fancy car… all the chicks are mine…,’ there is this new singer they have, you know, and the two rap dancers... All their songs are like that. They are the best!”, Filip said with excitement.
“What?” Nikola thought to himself.
On his way home, he dreamed about running across the football pitch again.
“I wish nobody had a mobile phone... Why does nobody play dice games anymore? Or football? Or hide-and-seek? Nobody wants to play tag… Why? What are they doing on that phone all day long… They look like aliens. It gets on my nerves.”
A survey conducted by UNICEF and AEM in Montenegro last year has shown that children aged 12–17 tend to spend an average of 8 hours a day in front of various screens.
Why does nobody play marbles anymore?
Sofia is 19-years-old and currently lives and studies in Budapest. She is a member of the first team of 'UNICEF Volunteers - Young Reporters' formed in 2018 within the media literacy campaign 'Let's Choose What We Watch'. She loves music, singing, she plays two instruments.
