Observer Staff Reporter Mr Ruddy Allen keeps reminding us of the relevance of dominoes not just as an extremely popular board game but as a tool for cognitive sustenance and social well-being.

This week he told us about the 2025 National Association of Domino Bodies (NADB) National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC) tournament held in St Ann on September 30.

According to our reporter, the event unfolded as “a beautiful blend of nostalgia, connection, and unmistakable delight…”

Competition organiser Mrs Monique Richards-Scott is reported as saying that, while some seniors came out simply to relax with no intention of actually playing dominoes, they ended up doing so.

We are told that, “Alongside the domino competition were karaoke sessions that echoed with laughter, a dancing competition that saw feet moving to familiar rhythms, and other games that sparked gleeful interaction.”

Mrs Richards-Scott was particularly pleased with the large turnout of men which she described as unusual for interventions targeting seniors.

“Normally, when we have our interventions across the parish, when it comes to seniors, you will find a one man or a two man, but you won’t find a lot of males like how you saw them here today. I especially love that,” she said.

No surprise there, since a domino game attracts Jamaican men — more especially older ones — like flying insects to a flame.

And, as has become customary with him, NADB President Mr Humbert Davis reminds us that, apart from encouraging rest and recreation, a game of dominoes inspires “critical thinking”.

It’s the reason he and others have been carrying the message to educators across the country that the game has great potential as a learning tool, “a gateway to learning”.

Likewise for the elderly and those struggling with mental and emotional pressures of one sort or another, dominoes serve as “enhancement therapy”, bringing people together, stimulating minds and providing a sense of “community and belonging”.

Indeed, with Friday, October 10 marked as World Mental Health Day, the therapeutic value of dominoes, other board games, and sports in general, should be underlined for all to see.

This, in an age when we are told social media and digital devices — despite their advantages — are becoming increasingly addictive and harmful.

That’s a growing source of worry for those who see their children, young people, and many who are not so young spending more and more time glued to digital devices, seemingly oblivious to the world around them.

Also, we note the warning from Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton that social media is a “source for significant misinformation generated… through technology-related artificial intelligence, where it creates a number of likely scenarios for the average android. It can become an aspirational desire to achieve what cannot be achieved because it’s generated artificially, it could also be the source of deviant behaviour [and] it could be the source of many mental health challenges…”

Banning social media for younger ones among us is probably not the answer. But there is clearly a case for a comprehensive campaign to proactively promote sport and healthy recreation as a proper, viable alternative to being held captive digitally.

We think that, given Jamaica’s culture and traditions, dominoes represent a sound, cheap, easy, “fun” way to start.