The River Delta

"Emmett, do you want to say something?" she asked. The main hall was stifling to me in that moment. The barn which was converted into a two story classroom and office space, left a large portion open, and laminated. It had mirrors and parallel bars across one side for ballet, but was used for other large events when needed. Sitting in training like I was, with the huge vaulted space above me I decided to close the journal I had been furiously scribbling in, and speak.

"...yyyeeaah?" Everyone chuckled a bit. I tried to compose my thoughts. "I think our programming is... well Meat-space-centric?" Looking around the room I had everyone's eyes, and they looked like the eyes of someone who has just heard a soon to be passerby start yammering under their breath. They were braced for some crazy. I continued.

"People use the term meat-space to present a dichotomy between the 'real' and 'virtual' worlds. I mean there is no such thing. Kids coming to our parks have built and taught their own language to each other over the internet, Memes carry a bizarre pictorial meaning. They are explained through haiku-like anecdotes. They bring those with them; that language into our parks when we have summer programs. Something I hear from moms all the time is 'My kid just sits around watching other people play Minecraft.' and it's bizarre to us! You are laughing cause I know you've heard it too."

"There is a huge parallel culture happening to us wherever we go, and people are making art and building things and singing songs. People are more well equipped to be human with one another than ever before. People can find their peers wherever they are. The internet is a river delta. Each island is site and streams of text, pictures and videos flow around them. Google has a whole bunch of well guarded islands that offer free citizenship, while other islands like Tumblr, and Youtube have springs that generate more content for people downstream."

"And I guess this is relevant to our discussion... only because we were talking about culture in the parks, and safety and inclusion. As computers become more mobile and less alienating the line between meat-space and cyber-space is being erased. People who come into the Fun For All program should feel welcomed.... and we should make an effort to integrate ourselves with their platforms."

Silence. Motes of dust spun lazily through the air as I tried to stop shaking.

"I guess what I am trying to say is we shouldn't tell kids to put their phones away."

My boss then called my ideas "hair-brained" which I interpreted as an insult at the time, but later I understood was a term of endearment with which he labeled some of his own schemes when presenting to his boss.

From the future: Yeah, still dealing with this. Now that I am a little older, I see that we just alienate kids by telling them to put their phones away. We have to share what we are excited about with them, and engage with whatever they are excited about.