Introduction
Sporting activities have been part of the society for a very long time. These activities have been used as part of education to the members of the society, as a source of entertainment and as a way of maintaining health in a person. According to Coakley, (2006), sporting in the society serves several functions without which there will be a problem in the members of the society. For a good social and human development, a person must engage in the sports. However, if people shun away from the sports, their personal and social development will be impaired. Sporting activities have been used as a powerful tool of bringing about economic and social development. Sporting has led to the intermingling of culture in the different societies. Therefore, sporting is a very essential part of both human and social development (Coakley, 2006).
Abstract
Sports have been in existence for a long time in the ancient civilizations. They originated from Greek and they have never lost significance even in the modern societies. Sports form a very important component of the societies throughout the world. The importance of sports ranges from educational uses, entertainment, economy and socialization. Without sports, the societies would not operate effectively. This paper analyzes the importance of sports in the current societies in regard to health, education, entertainment, socialization and economy.
Sporting and Health
According to Wenner, (1989), sporting encourages physical activities in an individual. Physical activities have a lot of health implications and they have been used in the prevention and treatment of various diseases in the society. To start with, sporting has been known to decrease the risk of heart disease. This is because sporting activities encourage the use of cholesterol, which is in the blood vessels. As a result, they prevent the accumulation of cholesterol in the blood vessels such as coronary arteries. If a person does not exercise, these cholesterol molecules accumulate in the blood for a long time. With a longstanding accumulation of the cholesterol in the blood, the cholesterol will tend to be deposited on the walls of the blood vessels leading to a continuous obliteration of the blood vessel. This is because the continuous deposition of the cholesterol on the walls attracts inflammatory cells and an inflammatory reaction which makes the blood vessel narrower.
If the coronary vessels are affected, they may get obliterated to a level which interferes significantly with the provision of blood to the heart muscles. The muscles are not able to receive enough blood in order to oxygen and nutrients. To a certain critical obstruction, the amount of oxygen provided by the blood is less than the amount that the heart muscle require. Therefore, the heart muscles will undergo an ischemic injury which can lead to myocardial infarction and heart attack. Thus, sport activities increase consumption of cholesterol, clearing the cholesterol in the blood and thus decreasing the chances of this cholesterol being deposited on the walls of the arteries. Thus, there is no narrowing of the lumen of the arteries and no compromise to the perfusion of the heart (Coakley, 2008).
Sporting activities lead to use of the muscles of a person. Normally, the development of the muscles is directly related to the amount of work which has been exerted on those muscles. If there is less use of the muscles, then there will be decreased development. If there is more use, the muscles will develop better thus making the person have a better muscular activity. Physical exercises in the sporting activities are necessary in ensuring that the muscles of people who do not do manual jobs are fit. Most people can spent their lives in the offices and they will not be engaged in any work, which is manual in nature. As a result, they are likely to have poor muscular development. The sporting activities make sure that these people do some physical work which will make their muscles develop better (Lipsyte, 1980).
People who do not do manual work and fail to exercise, they will develop a disuse atrophy of their muscles. For example, a person who does not walk is likely to have very weak muscles and weak development of the lower limbs which exposes him or her to a lot of risks. His or her muscles will not be able to function properly and will be more likely to get some disorders. In case of anything, the muscles will not be able to adapt to a situation which needs some physical exercise. Therefore, sporting activities are a form of physical exercise which leads to the proper development of the muscles of a person. If the muscles are used, they develop better but, if they are not used, they will have a poor development and thus will not be fit for carrying out their functions (Wenner, 1989).
Sporting activities increases the rate of blood flow in an individual. This leads to an increased amount of blood going through the kidney and thus elimination of the waste products is made easier. The physical activities make the heart pump blood faster and which leads to a higher filtration rate in the kidney. The result is that more waste products will be removed from the blood and the blood will be more purified. On the other hand, the failure to do some physical exercise hinders the pumping of blood at high speeds and the filtration rate is decreased. This leads to a decrease in the clearing of waste products and thus leads to an increase in the accumulation of such products in the blood (Coakley, 2008).
Sporting is a way of avoiding stress in a person and is even used to treat some forms of depression. The sporting activity usually occupies the mind of a person, making him or her not think about a certain problem he or she is facing. As a result, the person will not get so much depression. The sporting activity diverts the thoughts of depression to the activity itself and leading to prevention of depression. People who exercise regularly are known to have low incidence of depression while those who do not carry out various physical activities are more likely to develop depression. Sporting activities are therefore, important in the maintenance of normal function of brain and reduces the incidence of depression in the society (Coakley, 2008).
Entertainment
Sporting activities are a source of entertainment to most people in the society. Most people will engage in sporting activities so that they can get entertainment from the sport. There are different preferences of people when it comes to sports. Some sports are more entertaining to a person than other sports. People will choose which sport they want to engage in for them to experience their maximum entertainment (Lipsyte, 1980).
The use of sports as a source of entertainment is important in the society. Sporting ensures that the leisure time of the members of the society is used effectively. In a society where there is sporting, people will be more occupied with the sporting activity when they are free which reduces the chances of those people engaging in acts which are not good. They will use all their leisure time in sports and will not engage in some antisocial behaviors. However, in a society where there are no sports, the members of the society will not have an activity that they can do during their leisure time. They will be forced to engage in other activities which will help them get entertained. These activities can include things like consumption of alcohol during leisure time, engaging in immoral behaviors and other things like stealing. If the society does not introduce sports, more people will get into alcohol promoting alcoholism, they will engage in sexual activities which can lead to infections such as sexually transmitted infections and destruction of property.
Sport as an entertainment saves a lot of money for the people of that society. The sporting activities will be a form of cheap entertainment for the people. This is as opposed to where a person will go to a pub to buy alcohol so that he or she can get entertained which will cost him or her lots of money. There are very many sports which will be available to people of all social classes thus anyone can afford to engage in a particular sport of his or her choice. Sporting thus provides cheap entertainment to the people while ensuring that the people do not engage in other activities which are very expensive in the name of getting entertained (Lipsyte, 1980).
Economic Activity
Sporting activities are a source of income for the members of the society. People will engage in sporting so that they will get some payment from the participation in a certain game. This participation can just be local or international. An example is people who engage in athletic sports and they do so to get some payment after winning some contest. In addition, the society can also befit from the sports economically since when people come to observe the sports in the society, they will be charged some money which will improve the economic status of the society (Coakley, 2008).
Sporting also has been used as a way of advertising the various goods or services from companies. According to Lipsyte, (1980), the companies will sponsor various sporting activities so that they can make people know the goods and services they offer. The association of the goods and services from that company with a certain event will make the members of the society want to buy that good or service since they want to be associated with that good or service and by extension with the sport activity. These organizations which use sporting activities as a way of advertising their products capitalize on the people’s love of sports. They will sponsor activities which are very popular in the society so that people will attend them and advertise their goods and services (Lipsyte, 1980).
There are people and organizations which are specialized in sport activities and they derive their income from such activities. In most countries, there are clubs which play professional football among other games. These clubs have been formed with an objective of being an economic activity. This makes them earn income from that economic activity leading to improved standards of living. They employ people and provide some income to them. Other examples are; television channels which are dedicated to announcements of sport activities. These channels broadcast news of sports such as football, athletes among others. They however, charge their customers for using their channels. This makes them earn income in addition to providing employment opportunities for the members of the society.
Education
Sporting as a form of education has been used over ages. There are various aspects of sports which can be considered as important in promotion of education. First, sporting is used in refreshing people and thus making them more likely to understand some concepts in education. When people are reading and they get exhausted, they will be encouraged to participate in sports which will make them fresh and able to understand other concepts after the sport. Institutions of learning have time set for sport so that the students will be able to go and refresh themselves after they have read the whole day. The time for sporting will be slated in the afternoons or evenings when the students have been in class throughout the day and have got exhausted. After the sport activity, the students will be able to understand better (Wenner, 1989).
Sporting encourages people to remain healthy. They will not suffer from psychological diseases such as depression which will interfere with their learning. Sporting activities decreases the incidence of diseases which have negative impact on the learning process of the students. By if diseases decrease, the students will be able to participate and concentrate more in the class. However, if the students do not participate in sports, they will not be mentally and physically fit. They will be predisposed to a lot of physical and mental illnesses which will interfere with their education and thus decreasing the education standard of that person (Coakley, 2008).
Sporting activities provide an avenue for the instructors in education to explain the various concepts of education. For example, a teacher teaching physics will explain to the students that gravity is the force which brings a ball down when it has been kicked into the sky. This provides an accurate example of the learning process and thus makes the students understand a certain concept better. If the students do not participate in the games, the teacher will not be able to draw examples from the sport activities. Thus, sport activities are an essential part of education as the instructor will draw examples from the sporting activities and since the students like the games, they will understand them better (Wenner, 1989).
Social Functions
Sporting activities brings people from different cultural backgrounds together. This means that the sporting activities will encourage people who are culturally different to interact with one another. As a result, they are able to appreciate the different aspects of other people’s cultural origin. This makes them borrow from that other person’s culture. In addition, the cultural distinctiveness of the people will not be seen among people. People will interact together regardless of their culture and thus vices like racism and ethnicity will be eliminated from the society. Society members will be able to interact well without considering the race or the tribe of a person. The sports will also reduce the incidence of tribal conflicts among people.
Sport activities encourage people to participate in events which are involving teamwork. The sporting activities require that the participants cooperate and act as a team. This makes them understand that they should work as a team. They also appreciate the benefits of acting as a team which encourages them to engage in teamwork activities. In the sport activities, these people will learn about the various aspects of teamwork. They will understand how they will behave as a team and cooperate. Therefore, the sporting activity will provide them with team work skills which make them able to participate in other team work activities without many problems (Coakley, 2008).
Disadvantages of sports
Although sporting activities can be very important in the society, they can also have some negative effects on the members of the society. Spotting activities can lead to injuries which will affect the health of the people. In some sports like rugby, there is a high probability of a person getting injured and thus make him or her physically sick. In addition, the injuries can interfere with the learning of a person. Secondly, the society can engage in sports so much that it is interfering with the rest of the functions of the society. According to Coleman, (2005), the over-indulgence into sports will thus consume time for people which were supposed to be used in carrying out other activities. For example, excessive sporting among students can lead to their poor performance since they will use most of their time playing and thus not read. This will have a negative outcome on the academic performance of such people (Coleman, 2005).
Conclusion
Sporting is a very essential part of the health and the society in general. Spotting has health, academic, social and educational benefits. Sports will promote the health of a person; decrease the incidence of some disease in the society such as cardiac diseases. Sports will also encourage social integration and thus reducing the incidence of cultural conflicts. People will learn about the cultural values of other people, learn how to respect them and adopt better ways of living with one another since they have to cooperate in the sport activities. Sport activities also encourage group activities. They make people understand the importance of participating in group activities. They are also able to learn teamwork skills which they can apply in other aspects of life. In general, spotting activities help in the development of the society and thus are very essential.
Reference List
Coakley, L. (2006). Sport in Society. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Coakley, J. (2008). Sports in Society. New York: The Mc-Graw Hill Companies, Inc.
Coleman, C. (2005). Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society. United States: Transita.
Lipsyte, R. (1980). Sports and society: Great contemporary issues in Multinational Corporations. United States: Arno Press.
Wenner, L. (1989). Media, sports, & society. California: SAGE.