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'About ten years ago, I did a YouTube thing for a friend of mine. I showed up
at a space in Hollywood, and did some silly gaming stuff with them to help get
their channel off the ground. They'd done the same for me with
Tabletop, and
I was happy to return the favor. As I've said many times, nobody gets their
foot in the door without some help, no matter how hard they try to rewrite
their origin story.
There were a TON of YouTubers there, most of whom I didn't recognize because
I'm not in the demo. Most were twentysomethings, but there were a couple of
teens, and maybe half a dozen younger kids who seemed to be having a pretty
good time playing with toys and games. About halfway through the day, a mom who
appeared to be around 27 or so brought her son over for a picture with me. He
looked to be about 7. You know, the age I was when my dogshit parents ended my
childhood and put me to work.
So this mom tells me that she's super excited to "get his channel going" and
before I even knew what was happening, I heard this come out of my mouth: "He
wants a channel? Or you want a channel? He only gets one chance to be a kid,
and no kid should have to work at all, or perform if they don't want to." Then
I looked at the kid, and I saw a VERY familiar face from about ... 1979. It's
in the eyes and the way the shoulders slump. I looked back at the mom. "Don't
take his childhood away from him." Then: "He only gets one childhood."
She looked shocked. This was clearly not something she had ever thought about,
and certainly didn't expect to think about at this thing. I felt like she was
seeing her child as a child for maybe the first time? I don't know. She was
clearly uncomfortable, like nobody had ever spoken up on behalf of her child
before.
"He loves it! He's always having fun!" She said, with the same fake enthusiasm
and terrible lying I knew from my mother.
What I wanted to say to her was, "I hope this is a total failure for you. I
hope you get zero views, get your own job, and support your kid being a kid."
But instead, I looked at this sweet little boy and said, "You deserve to be a
kid." Then I walked away before I caused a scene. I did not participate in his
exploitation by posing for a photo that he didn't care about, and would be used
by his mother for some kind of promotion.
I think about that kid from time to time. He's probably right around 18 or so,
now, and I hope that his childhood wasn't anything like mine. I hope he's happy
and living his best life. I hope his mom grew up and chose to be his mom, not
his pimp, and that they have a loving and supportive family relationship.'
Via Muse.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
