My Son’s Self-Quarantine Began a Long Time Before Corona

Summary

A parent humorously reflects on their 14-year-old son's self-imposed quarantine, where he engages in social gaming rather than physical interaction, and contrasts this with their own generation's outdoor activities.

Abstract

The article describes the author's experience with their teenage son, who has been happily self-isolating in his room playing video games with friends online, seemingly unaffected by the outside world's concerns. The author, who is 59, reminisces about their childhood, which was filled with outdoor activities, and finds the concept of virtual mining and monster hunting in games like Minecraft and Monster Hunter intriguing yet perplexing. Despite initial reservations about screen time and the societal fear of video game addiction, the author acknowledges the shift in socialization norms and accepts that virtual interaction is now a fundamental aspect of adolescent social life, especially in light of the pandemic.

Opinions

The author finds amusement in their son's preference for virtual socialization over physical interaction, considering it a massive party within his room.
There is a generational disconnect in understanding the appeal of video games, with the author's generation seeing them as mere quarter-cost arcade distractions compared to the immersive experiences of modern gaming.
The author expresses a mix of bewilderment and acceptance regarding the son's activities, such as mining in Minecraft, contrasting it with the harsh realities of historical mining tragedies like those in Wales.
There is a touch of irony

Why 14-year-old boys may not be affected by the virus

Fourteen year old boys don’t want or need to go out anyway. My son, whose school closed last Friday, has been shut in his room ever since, hooting and hollering with his friends via the X-Box like he’s having the time of his life. Seriously, it’s like there’s a massive party going on in there. Plus, he hasn’t had to shower, which is something he hates but has to do occasionally during the school year — he doesn’t want to be “that” kid.

What exactly is he playing in there? I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m 59 years old. For my generation, video games were things we did for a minute at the pizza parlor while we waited and they cost a quarter.

Who would have thunk that they would become the immersive, social, and murderous gatherings that they are for today’s teens?

I think one of the games might be called Monster Hunter. Wow. Today’s kids actually hunt and kill monsters. Us, we ran like hell from them and tried to tell ourselves they didn’t exist but we knew they were there in the darkness of the hallway — Ahhhh!! No, we were an inferior species. We indulged in time-wasting activities like running around in the woods and sleeping out at night, looking up at the stars — spotting the big dipper and so on. How dumb. We could have been up in our own warm rooms traveling through cyber space and…what?? Mining?

Is that what he’s doing — actually mining? I was surprised to hear that these 14-year-olds were still playing Minecraft together online, but it makes sense. It brings back nostalgic memories of the good old days, when they used to huddle together under a blanket on the sidelines of their sister’s soccer game so the sun — the damn sun! — didn’t glare up the screen of their Minecraft iPhones.

Mining, when I was young, was considered a fucking tragedy. I mean, look what happened in Wales — wasn’t that episode of The Crown heartbreaking.

But no, these kids love mining. And Overwatching, whatever the hell that is. And Fortniting…and they’ll be doing that for much longer than a fortnight, apparently. What’s the latest estimate for the lockdown? 18 months? Shite!

I know there are probably good fathers out there who would go into his room and pretend to be interested in his pixel adventures. “What monster have you slain today, son?” But I can’t.

A pixel is a pixel is a pixel. I don’t get how they care about any of it

But I’m glad he’s happy. This is how the boys socialize nowadays, and to all those hand wrenching parents who worried about their kids “screentime”, well guess what — screen time is all there is now, folks.

It just goes to show you — don’t succumb to group think. I remember huddling in an auditorium a few years ago with other parents, many of them in tears, as they watched this documentary actually called Screen Time, about the addiction to video games of the modern child.

I wasn’t so sure, but I went along with it. “Yeah, it’s a real shame, why don’t these damn kids go outside and play like we did?”

Maybe these damn kids knew what was coming. I mean, they are expert in dystopian universes, after all — that’s the bread and butter of these multi-player doom games.

We grown-ups, what were we thinking? That we lived in a safe and wonderful universe where our great leaders would take care of us and nothing bad would ever happen?

Who’s got egg on their face now?

Yeah, I have no group of friends who want to go online with me and hang out. Because…that would be dumb, right?

Or would it?