Radiococo Broadcast #02
Moonviewing
If you hang out with kids 8+, you would most probably have heard of Roblox. It is one of the hottest games now. Technically, it is not a game but a platform where users can play a variety of games online with friends. Most kids I have asked will name Roblox as one of their favourite games, and when I ask what it is, they will tell me “Everything!”, “Anything!”. How does anyone keep up? My 9-year-old cousin has been firmly encouraging me to get on it for months now and I put it off time and again because it was largely not my aesthetic. I am pretty much over the low-poly look. The kids I know talk about it frequently, and I was starting to feel left out. So two weeks ago, over an impromptu video call, my cousin walked me through creating my account, becoming friends, customizing my avatar.
I spent too long choosing a decent looking jumper for my character and finally settled on one with a pizza on it. I was summoned into the game Driving Empire. Maybe it was my internet, but the game loaded painfully slow, and talking to my cousin and seeing how excited he was that I am finally on Roblox was the only redeeming factor. “Imagine if I was at your house! I could show you EVERYTHING!” My heart! Since I was new to the game, I could not afford a car and was driven around by my cousin. In-game, time accelerated the same way in The Sims where your sim is off to work, and you were waiting around for them to return. Meaning to say a minute irl was about an hour in-game. Nighttime came around and I was slowly warming up to this low poly world. There wasn’t much going on really, until he stopped by a park and told me to get out of the car. “I want to show you the moon”. The moon?! I was not expecting him to notice a detail like that in-game and was so moved and thankful for his sensitivity. He had to teach me how to change the camera angle to be able to look up at the sky. He could see how excited I was by the moon and when morning came around, and the moon was slowly setting at the pier, he said “Ah, I wish I had a boat so I can drive you to the moon”. Sigh.
This little moonment reminded me of a conversation I had with a student one early winter in Tokyo. We were waiting for his mom to pick him up after class, and at that time of the year, it was already dark at 6 pm.
I asked that question fully prepared for a non-answer. I believe in the innate curiosity and gentleness of kids. But a part of me also acknowledges that they might outgrow it because of the society we live in–one that hardly prioritizes that kind of gentleness and sensitivity. Sure, tech dominates all their lives now, and it may seem like we will slowly lose them to their devices. But the kids remind me that although they may be digital natives, they are so very capable of co-existing meaningfully with tech. The topic of kids and tech is not always about a two-player battle.
Thank you for tuning in this month. I hope you keep an eye out for the banana moon!
This month’s play-list:
We have been drawing icebergs wrong!
I love how this podcast explains things to kids
Modelling a lightning strike
Do you know what it sounds like outside of your music bubble?