Mind-Controlled Drones

Dear Future,

Please slow down and let me catch my breath. This is a $300 drone being mind-controlled, thanks to a team at the University of Minnesota. While the commands may be limited, it's still incredible!

The Resilience of Play

Both in fiction and in reality, our stories often delve into recognizable themes of resilience.

The One World Futbol Project is sending indestructible soccer balls to children in the most dire situations around the planet.  It's not just an inspiring effort worthy of support, but it highlights the importance of play in the lives of all human beings.

This single effort plans to deliver 1.5 million soccer balls in the coming years.  Awesome!

Diary of Seamless Kid on Fire

Irreverent but necessary mash-up of Wimpy Kid and Hunger Games

When I was a goofy teenager back in the 80s, I did a lot of creative writing and journal-style reflection.   A lot.  I was just imagining how wonderful it would be to have all of those ramblings from my old Apple IIe.  How interesting it would be to dig right into those teen emotions and memories!

That's an antique called a "stereo" next to an Apple.
Yes, my parents had to deal with me covering my room in graffiti.

Perhaps it's best to let some of the past become... a little blurry?

Today, many kids start with Facebook in elementary school.  Even before they've begun the complex adolescent journey of identity development and values discernment, they've started carefully counting their online friends.   By the end of middle school, many of today's youth have spent countless hours online chatting and managing e-friendship politics.   

Real life and online life are seamless for them.  That part I can get.   I think.

But the part my head definitely can't wrap around is that today's young children can remain in immediate contact with this social network for their entire lives.   Imagine all of those kids who moved away during your K-12 years.  Imagine those you left behind when you moved.  Now imagine having been on Facebook/Skype with all them for your entire life.   Conversely, imagine being unable to distance yourself.  Even if you unplug, the social network reality remains.  That bully or that enemy from middle school is going to continue popping up as "somebody you might know" because you share friends and data.   That argument you had in 9th grade on Facebook will always remain.  

The day will come when elementary school friends will die and still be on Facebook.  I can't get my head around this childhood-to-graveyard, seamless social reality.

I've lost touch with many childhood buddies.  Isn't that "natural"?

I moved quite a few times as a child and went to many different schools.   From the big city to a small one.   A central part of my adolescent development was about "getting out" of that small town life… about dreaming of new horizons.   Like many people, my life involves critical breaks from the past as I explored the world and essentially developed my identity.  How many of us had at least one time in their life where they just needed to break away?  Travel.  New friends.  New world.  It's one thing to reconnect with the past.  That is exciting.  It's entirely another matter to never disconnect.

Will today's youth ever be able to venture out "on their own" like youth of yesteryear?

As a writer, I find this question to be a powerful challenge.

Imagine if you could never truly break away?  Your elementary school, middle school, high school, and college "friends" are all right there on Facebook (or whatever)… for your entire life.   And there's no escaping mom and dad during college!  Now I respect that kids learn to negotiate and manage these online dynamics, sometimes purging "friends and family," but it still seems like a profoundly different developmental reality with this new type of social networking.   It isn't just a matter of privacy.

scene from The Hunger Games

Kids today seem pressured to think of themselves in terms of publicity and public relations on a level that we never had to worry about.   Remember being 14 and feeling like you were always on stage?  Even when alone, teens often feel that sense of eyes on them.  Do today's youth ever get to let go of that feeling?  Just think of all the news stories of online bullying, suicides, etc.  For them, there seems to be no sense of breaking free of the publicity and visibility (not the same thing as fame).  What does it mean to be "independent" in that panoptical context?  This seems like a great theme for YA writers to wrestle with.

Are we surprised that "unwanted publicity" themes explode in popular stories for youth?

scene from Harry Potter

I believe this theme is one of the reasons Hunger Games resonates so deeply.  The protagonist's life is at stake in how she manages unwanted, nearly seamless publicity.  This goes way beyond our worn discussions of reality television.  

However, I also wonder about the reverse side of this thematic coin.  

What will today's youth remember?  Will their life stories be too carefully managed and edited?  If you can never completely lose touch or distance yourself from it, then will you ever fully appreciate it?

Isn't the juicy stuff where our stories snap apart?

And in the fully-alive-but-blurry moments of complete privacy...  

"Don't it always seem to go...that you don't know what you've got till it's gone...
they paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

The Game Layer (inspired)

image from Storify

Are we heading into a world where everything is turned into gaming?  

Points for brushing your teeth?  For watching certain TV shows?  

Is gamification the next big revolution after social networking?  I think so, although I doubt we can completely predict exactly what this will mean in 10, 20, or 30 years from now.  Some of it may be easy to imagine (and perhaps scary), yet I suspect there will be unforeseeable dynamics and serendipity.

If you find the idea of gamification interesting, check out these two videos.  

Jesse Schell, DICE 2010: When Games Invade Real Life (full video here)

Seth Priebatsch, TED 2010:  Building the Game Layer on Top of the World

What do you think?

Microsoft has an entire research division devoted to this as well as a non-profit partner created with MIT (Education Arcade) to explore gaming implications for teaching and learning.

How will gamification change us?  Will it change how we feel about life?

• Gamification Blog
• Gamification Wiki
• Gamification Summit

Street Games (inspired)

My dad grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

He tells me of a time when diverse communities played together on the streets.  Stick ball, Marbles, Ring-o-Leavio, Hopscotch, Skelly, etc.

From streetplay.com

For those interested in this rich history, I strongly suggest finding the documentary New York Street Games.