World of Wonders
To some extent I've gotten used to the Internet's wonders. Electronic modes of communication — this blog, for example — have come to seem second nature to me. So have things like browsing the web and "googling" and even, once upon a time, "instant messaging." But, for me, it's all silent communication—brain and nerves and muscle working together down through my arms and to my fingers and out into the massive system of tubes that makes up the Internet.
Until just recently, however, my son has had little interest in the Internet. He rarely does email or anything like that. He does a little research for school when he must, and he plays a few 'net-only games. Mostly, as far as the computer and the Internet go, he searches guitar tabs that help him learn to play parts of his favorite songs.
But he has begun an interesting online experience through his new XBOX 360 and its program "XBOX Live." Through this system, he plays his games just like he would at home. But through his "Live" subscription he is able to play with other people who subscribe. He plays alongside friends in his class at school. He plays alongside gamers from places like New England and "Old" England and Belgium. The "Live" gaming experience includes a headset and microphone so that he can actually talk with these people. He loves to tell me what the British gamers say as they play and how they pronounce his name. Yesterday he got home from school and had a "Live" voice message waiting for him from his friend in Belgium.
Due to circumstances I won't go into here, our family travel has been in fairly narrow circles these last 15 years (although we're hoping to begin expanding). This XBOX experience is opening his eyes to the fact that a world really exists out there beyond the confines of Tennessee, Virginia and North and South Carolina. He's been warned about the dangers of the online world, of course, and I'm watchful. But I'm also excited by his excitement, his discovery of folks like himself, of friends he might never meet in any other way, in any other place. They go on the battlefield in Gears of War, and they strategize and wreak havoc and laugh, and I find it fun to listen through the door of his game room.
This really is more a world of wonders than I ever imagined it was when I was his age.
Until just recently, however, my son has had little interest in the Internet. He rarely does email or anything like that. He does a little research for school when he must, and he plays a few 'net-only games. Mostly, as far as the computer and the Internet go, he searches guitar tabs that help him learn to play parts of his favorite songs.
But he has begun an interesting online experience through his new XBOX 360 and its program "XBOX Live." Through this system, he plays his games just like he would at home. But through his "Live" subscription he is able to play with other people who subscribe. He plays alongside friends in his class at school. He plays alongside gamers from places like New England and "Old" England and Belgium. The "Live" gaming experience includes a headset and microphone so that he can actually talk with these people. He loves to tell me what the British gamers say as they play and how they pronounce his name. Yesterday he got home from school and had a "Live" voice message waiting for him from his friend in Belgium.
Due to circumstances I won't go into here, our family travel has been in fairly narrow circles these last 15 years (although we're hoping to begin expanding). This XBOX experience is opening his eyes to the fact that a world really exists out there beyond the confines of Tennessee, Virginia and North and South Carolina. He's been warned about the dangers of the online world, of course, and I'm watchful. But I'm also excited by his excitement, his discovery of folks like himself, of friends he might never meet in any other way, in any other place. They go on the battlefield in Gears of War, and they strategize and wreak havoc and laugh, and I find it fun to listen through the door of his game room.
This really is more a world of wonders than I ever imagined it was when I was his age.
posted by mac | 9:51 AM
3 Comments:
Isn't technology grand?! I think it's great that people are able to visit other parts of the world and learn from the great cultures that are out there. even if it's just through through the wires. I hope R gets to travel a bunch when he's older and gets to experience it in real life.
When I was a child one of my grade school classes made a trip to the University of Michigan computer center. We printed our name on a punch card and it was run through the comuter and our name was printed.... I have been alive for the whole modern computer era to this time and am thankful to have been exposed to it as such an early age.. Who knows what wonders R may experince with his exposure to the new era of networked computers... Bravo for his lightbulb moment!!!!!
It's amazing what technology allows us to do. In China, I met someone who had read my blog while in Italy.
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