Compare and contrast indoor and outdoor recreational activities

Imagine these situations: your family takes a vacation during public holidays, you play badminton every weekend with friends, you surf “Facebook” when being bored, etc. It can be easily seen that recreational activity, without any doubt, has become one of the essential parts in our daily lives today. Many a study has revealed that if we seldom take part in recreational activities, we will be frequently stressed out and have a bad temper, which may undermine our interpersonal relationships. As a consequence, we have to carry out recreational activities properly when our heads are about to explode. In fact, there are two types of recreational activity: indoor activity and outdoor activity. In my way of thinking, both indoor and outdoor recreational activities can bring us numerous advantages and supply lots of options; nonetheless, they are different in their space and timing.

First and foremost, both indoor and outdoor recreational activities can bring us dozens of benefits. More often than not, the school authorities will encourage students to take part in co-curricular activities because they can really benefit from it plentifully. As far as we know, both of them jointly have a keyword which is “recreational”. The word “recreational” implies that people will have a whale of a time while doing activities and this may fill our spare time meaningfully and relax our mind from being worried about the tasks. Besides that, indoor activities like playing chess, reading articles and so forth not only relieve stress and anxiety, but also effectively facilitate self-improvement. On the other hand, outdoor sports are able to help us strengthen muscles, lose weight, reduce blood pressure, and even increase life expectancy. Furthermore, carrying out recreational activities enhances our opportunities to get along with others; thereby the bonds between them may get stronger as well. Thus, indoor and outdoor recreational activities can assist in the improvement of our thinking and health.

Apart from that, another similarity between indoor and outdoor recreational activities is that both of them provide a variety of selection. Along with development of the times and progress of society, the lives of all the people in such a fascinating world have been greatly changed than before. As the pace of people’s lifestyle speeds up, their living pressure is getting heavier; nowadays, indoor activities gradually become the major options of people and also generate more selections. This can be shown by the following examples, in this day and age, more and more people choose playing mobile games as leisure activity. Other examples of indoor activities are family time, watching movies, meditating, baking, doing yoga, etc. Nevertheless, the advantages of outdoor activities should not be passed over. Thereupon, despite being tied up with work, we need carrying out some outdoor activities such as camping, jogging, fishing, biking, jungle trekking and so on. In short, whether indoor or outdoor recreational activities, we will have a diversity of choices.

Notwithstanding a mountain of similarities both share, some differences still exist. One of the differences between indoor and outdoor recreational activities is a space where we carried out activities.  It is believed that indoor recreational activities are always limited to the condition of the place. For instance, a video game console which is an electronic or computer device that outputs a video signal to display a video game that people can play through a game controller can be only played indoors. Called as “homebody”, one immersed in video game consoles in a limited space enduringly will gradually suffer from illnesses. In contrast, the space where outdoor activities are carried out is broader and usually in contact with nature. The space mentioned above comprises a lake, a leisure park, a jungle and the list goes on. Therefore, a space where we carried out activities is considered as one of the differences between indoor and outdoor recreational activities.

Last but not least, there is no doubt that another difference is the timing of doing activities. In nature, although usually conducted in a limited space, indoor recreational activities have no infection to unpredictable weather changes as well as day and night cycles; hence, people need not worry about the effects brought by bad weather when doing activities under the roof of the building. On the contrary, the timing when we carry out outdoor activities need to be considered rigorously compared with doing indoor activities. As a matter of fact, outdoor activities are always affected by weather changes and safety as well as requiring more time for preparation. For example, at present, on account of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic dragging people into hell and death, most outdoor activities are compulsory to be avoided by people in order to protect their own safety. As a result, there is an open-and-shut distinction between the timing when we do indoor and outdoor recreational activities.

In a nutshell, there are a lot of similarities and differences between indoor and outdoor recreational activities. To sum up, both indoor and outdoor recreational activities can bring us dozens of benefits and provide a variety of selection; however, they are also different in their space and timing. As the saying goes, “taking a break is for accomplishing a longer journey,” in spite of having our hands full with endless tasks, sometimes, we must forget about troubles and drop everything because excessive working without relaxation will only make us endure torments all the time. For this, both indoor and outdoor recreational activities could be the best solution ever. Hence, just do something recreational when you are stressed out from your busy life.