(2022-04-24) Connie Alohomora

Connie: Alohomora. Popular fiction is filled with stories about children who grow to realize that they possess some kind of special power. (Harry Potter, Elsa)

From those moments onwards, their lives will never be the same.

Failing to understand and manage their potent powers has dire consequences—they end up being controlled by their own powers

On the other hand, mastery over their powers enables our young heroes and heroines to unlock new agencies and channel their abilities to accomplish formidable deeds

Today every single child growing up with technology has at minimum one of these incredibly potent superpowers as a baseline — access to the internet and its infinite portals

With the power of the internet, all kids have a higher probability of stumbling upon the talent they were destined to master.

Every child has that moment when they stumble upon something on the internet that makes them realize Wow I can’t believe it! I’m doing what feels like magic (magick)

you might stumble upon something on here that makes you realize Hold up, I can use this thing to craft my own world. This is no longer just a playground but a space to build empires—to affect the world beyond my screen even.

This is the moment when you’ve crossed the threshold. Another iconic narrative arc flickers to life — kids can now literally follow in the footsteps of superheroes like Spiderman and Batman who live double lives, working mundane jobs during the day while accomplishing heroic deeds at night.

This is the bildungsroman of the digital age — to realize you can play, and win a different game than what was served up to you in your IRL life, to realize that you can design your own games and that the ceilings in the world behind your screen is higher than what IRL adults would make it seem. (reality hacker)

How do we help kids learn how to swim in this ocean while we ourselves are also struggling to learn along with them?

Kids today and in the future are inevitably going to grow up in multiple parallel universes, one foot in the online universe and one foot in their home and school environments

As they spend more time in the bewitching digital worlds they discover, as they acquire new skills and experiment with different identities online, how do our relationships with the youngest generation evolve as they become almost strangers, speaking different languages from their family and even their own offline peers? They will become people who have seen and resided in whole different worlds.

let’s start by zooming in to grapple with the questions surrounding one of these mini-digital universes that have captured the hearts & minds of millions of children

Minecraft

While the many stifling containers kids find themselves in (schools, daycares, etc.) often put an arbitrary ceiling on how much kids are given the space, resources, and community to learn and build at their own pace, the “world of bits” is moving at a startlingly fast pace at tearing down these walls and limitations — and the creativity of children is pouring through the cracks.

In Minecraft, kids realize quite literally that the world is indeed a malleable place.

Ok great, so what’s the catch? How do we explain our totally reasonable, instinctive hesitancy about the idea of kids spending hours and hours glued to alluring pixelated worlds?

here’s what feels uncanny

1) The relationships forged solely through these gaming interfaces are parasocial (I disagree - I think "parasocial" is better limited to fan/celeb (or influencer) pseudo-relationship than peer virtual community relationships.)

2) The great deeds and accomplishments achieved feel artificial once you step away from the screen—so why step away at all? Sometimes, the digital world that enabled creative escapism becomes another prison we can’t escape. Dopamine-loop wanking - again, not much different from many other enjoyable but ultimately meaningless activities.

We must recognize that games like Minecraft simultaneously both enhance the agency of kids but can also chip away at it if we’re not careful. (addiction)