#Balancing Screen Time

[forevergrateful2016]

The Day My Phone Became a Stranger to My Children

I came across a post on Facebook today that stopped me in my tracks. It was a simple story, yet it hit me with the weight of a thousand truths. A teacher read an essay from her student, a child who wished to be a phone. Why? Because if they were a phone, they would have their parents’ full attention. As I sat there, phone in hand, I couldn’t help but think of my own children: my curious toddler…

[kidsinnowadays]

How to Navigate Remote Learning Successfully: A Parent's Comprehensive Toolkit

Discover a range of essential resources and strategies to effectively support your child's remote learning journey, ensuring a productive and enriching educational experience. #RemoteLearning #ParentingToolkit #OnlineEducation #SupportingStudentSuccess

The landscape of education has undergone a significant transformation with the rise of remote learning. As parents, navigating this new educational paradigm can present unique challenges. However, armed with the right tools and strategies, you can ensure that your child’s remote learning experience is not only successful but also enriching and enjoyable. This comprehensive toolkit provides a…

[aquanutart]

I was talking and I mentioned that I have my old Game Boy and original Pokemon cartridge. I said, "I think they still work."

I was told, "The internal batteries on the Game Boy cartridges have run out. They're all dead."

"Oh," I said, trying not to show how crestfallen I was. I felt like I was losing nerd cred for not knowing that, although I never kept up with that type of info anyway. I'm here for the fantasy and imaginative aspects of games, and tend not to follow the competitive or technical details.

I tried not to feel anything as I went home. If they were real animals, I reminded myself, I would have had to say goodbye long ago.

But like so many other people, Pokemon was my childhood. It was all I thought about and dreamed about, and the closest thing I could imagine to heartbreak was the knowledge that they weren't real. I spent nearly all my time writing longhand self-insert Pokemon fanfiction--far more than I spent actually playing the game. My Pokemon were with me in my imagination wherever I went. I started playing Pokemon Blue when I was 5, and the last time I had played it was probably when I was 9 or 10. I remembered I had turned it on again one more time after that, not to play it, but to look at my childhood Pokemon.

It was during high school, after a move overseas that completely upended my life, and I was struggling with the crushing blow of being taken away from everything I knew and trying to make sense of anything (least of all adolescence) in another language. All I wanted was to go back to childhood and have everything go back to how it was before.

Seeing my Pokemon, just as I'd left them, had comforted me. I had looked at their stats pages, taken photos of them with my digital camera (that I don't even know if I still have), and then turned it off without doing anything.

That was probably 9 or 10 years after the games came out. It had been a long time since then. I had long since taken the AA batteries out of my Game Boy Color and left it untouched. I didn't even have AA batteries anymore.

It had worked then. But now it had been 27 years... I thought about not trying to turn my cartridge back on. As long as I didn't turn it on, I could believe my Pokemon were still there, the way I remembered them.

On my day off, which happened to be Pokemon Day, I googled and read that some people on forums and Reddit were still able to play their original Pokemon games.

Then... it was possible. I went out to buy toothpaste. At the store, I asked where I could find AA batteries.

It was a big thing for me to be able to go to the store and buy things myself. When I moved at age 13, I felt like something went wrong with growing up. It was difficult to follow what people were saying, and people didn't always understand what I said either. I had been introverted even in English, but now I had enough negative experiences that I became afraid and stopped trying to talk to people altogether.

I threw myself into video games and reliving childhood memories. The internet was where I could communicate in my first language and understand. I lived online and didn't interact with the real world. On the internet I felt like I was understood and could find people who shared my interests the way I did, but in the real world it always felt like I could get hurt if anyone knew me.

I realize now that I could have had a better experience overseas if I'd known how to adapt and socialize, but this was not something I knew even in English, and trying to learn in another language made it ten times harder. I'm sorry now for missing out on interactions that I know I could have had, but I just didn't know how. I wouldn't know how until I learned, and it took me a long time to learn.

I grew up online, in the company of others who had trouble fitting in with the real world, even in their own language. Those experiences shaped me, and the friendships I've made and support I've received online are invaluable to me. The internet gave me a way to live, and through it I learned how to interact with others. But in many ways, for many years, it felt like my life was put on hold and I stopped growing up.

Several years ago I moved back, to not far from where I was born, and I was able to work for the first time. I began to interact with people and feel like I had a place in the real world.

After shutting myself away for so many years, every little step I made out in the world felt terrifying. But every little thing I did on my own made me feel like I was living for the first time.

Even something as little as going to the store and buying a pack of batteries.

I was directed to a shelf at the end of an aisle, and found myself looking at a rack of lithium AA batteries. Did they not sell the old kind anymore?

I walked around to the other side and was relieved to find the familiar black and brown Duracell batteries I'd known from my childhood. I felt more confident about putting in a battery that looked the same as I remembered. The smallest pack they sold was an 8-pack for $12.99. I really didn't need 8 batteries. I didn't have any other devices that used them.

I thought, what if I turn it on and it doesn't work and I'll have wasted $12.99?

I also thought we might already have batteries. I might be able to say, "Mom, do we have any batteries?" and she'd pull out two AAs from a drawer somewhere and I'd save my money.

But somehow I felt like part of what was important about this was being an adult and being able to buy my own batteries.

Yet... what if it just ended up making me sad? Was it better not to know?

I went to the checkout with just the toothpaste and stood hesitating at the edge of the checkout line.

If I didn't get the batteries now, and it turned out we didn't have any batteries, I wouldn't try it. I knew I would just put it off until even more time passed, and then... "Are you in line?" someone asked me.

"No," I said, and I turned around and went back to the shelf.

I bought the batteries.

At home, I took out my original Game Boy Color from the drawer where I left it, the one my dad had surprised me with when I was 5 years old and that I had brought overseas and back.

I put the batteries in and turned it on without a cartridge first to make sure the batteries were inserted correctly. The Game Boy logo scrolled across the screen and it made the familiar blinging Game Boy startup noise. I turned it off again, satisfied.

I took out my original Pokemon Blue cartridge, momentarily having to remember which way it went in, and slotted it in.

I turned it on, watched the whole Pokemon Blue intro out of nostalgia, and then pressed START.

My heart leaped for joy.

MY POKEMON!!!! MY POKEMON ARE ALIVE!!! 🥺🥺🥺

My original Pokemon, that were with me in 1998 when I was 5-6 years old, are still with me 27 years later. I want to cry!!! I love the old sprites, I'm SO happy to see them again 😭😭😭 the Pokemon look so little and cheerful at the same time, which I love 🥺🥺🥺 I know there are people with many more hours on their games, who have leveled all their Pokemon to 100. But these are my Pokemon who were with me through my childhood, and I spent many more hours making up stories about them than actually playing the game. I'm so happy to see them again 😭😭😭

All I want is to see my Pokemon. My other Pokemon are in boxes. Now, how do I get to the nearest PC? Where am I?

Oh... Oh. I have to confess something. When I was a kid, I was scared of the dark cave areas, and whenever I got to them, I stopped playing for a while. (I was stuck at Mt. Moon until I was like, 7.) So I never actually beat the game.

And here I am on Victory Road, with the team of Pokemon I was taking to the Elite Four, without an Escape Rope.

The only way for me to see my other Pokemon is... to finally make it through Victory Road, after 27 years?!

[accioepiphany]

Not to be the bearer of bad news but “Her [Claire’s] role gets bigger in the fourth season of The Bear” is the opposite of what I wanted to hear…

[ryllen]

something i promised on my kofi 6 months ago... 🫠

[prismfractals]

i wanted to send a WIP to a friend who hasn’t started on s2 of squid game yet and ended up with this eldritch horror ass censor for in-ho’s face 😭

[sforzesco]

well. you know. rome's three headed monster, of course.

[drugsttoreperfume]

okay now just give us bobby back and everything is perfect

[pseudophan]

already being way late to the tit gif game, meaning i essentially have all the time in the world because i'm already way past the initial window of getting things out immediately, is actually so bad for me because why are there eleven adjustment layers on this simple gif i'm working on

[nomsfaultau]

I keep thinking I’m almost done with the next Lambs chapter and then “Wilbur” and “Technoblade” start fighting over not getting as much Philza time as the other did. And I’m like. Bruh. Y’all are the LEAST siblings coded of the dynamic combos can you stop bickering!? Also Philza keeps trying to run away everytime I turn around lmao you’re not done suffering

[witchofthemidlands]

it's past 3am idc anymore. he was hinted but not officially named & had less than 10 minutes of screen time but in my opinion matthew goode is the best modern version of dracula i have seen in YEARS.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

Plan for this writing session:

No tumblr until I finish at least this next section of the story.

Don't worry about artificial story structure rules.

Just follow the flow of the story and prose.

[scoliosisgoblin]

Which version of Rick is your fav?

it's so hard for me to choose tbh. HOWEVER, I'd say Evil Rick

then I'd say it's C-137 and Memory Rick

I love how pathetic™ Evil Rick really is tbh. love that he's being controlled by his Morty. can you guess who my favorite Morty is?

[focsle]

Many nights at 11:15 pm I realize that I didn't do anything I wanted to get done that evening, though nor did I do anything to relax, and instead spent it all...idk, languidly washing dishes, pacing around my apartment, and scrolling apps. And I always say 'tomorrow...tomorrow I will use my time wisely'. Ad nauseam.

[vagueiish]

kinda wish more bands would turn people who use their phones during concerts into spam. that would be nice

[thunderstomm]

I finally finished all 3 Team Hot Wheels movies the other day! Many thoughts.