My daughter's avatar

...is a fuzzy white puppy. Yes (sigh), I caved. I let her buy a Webkinz.

Barely on the heels of getting an American girl doll from her father (AG dolls among kids we know generally are purchased by grandparents or noncustodial parents), Y started hocking about a new fad. You buy a small, Beanie-Baby like stuffed animal. It comes with a secret code which you then use on the Webkinz website to play games using an avatar of your new pet.

So naturally, she informed me last night that she was "really not so interested in books." So I began reading her Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which naturally, she got interested in. But as soon as I put it down she wanted to go rushing back the the computer. Clearly, we have a problem here.

Sunday she had a friend over and what did they do? Play on the Webkinz site, of course. Yes, it was social--they were doing it together. This is not going to become a habit, however!

I have to admit that how some of this online activity plays out socially intrigues me. Generally, I don't have much respect for online culture--the addictions, the flaming, IM's poor influence on language, librarians trying to dumb themselves down to get patrons. That being said, I love--and NEED!--the Internet and I've probably kept in better touch with my far-flung friends because of it. I don't think I would have made such a good editor or librarian without a computer--I cannot imagine editing, for example, by typewriter ribbon.

But when I saw Y and her friend T sitting together discussing what to do their avatars, I could see that it was quite social, and in fact once Y had a Webkinz, she and this classmate began interacting more and became friends, and of course they are not only playing on the computer. And as my father says, if Y doesn't take part in these activities and by default learn the skills behind them, she will be at a disadvantage in the work world later. My friend and longtime writing partner Theo, who was also initially skeptical of bloggers and blogging, has also found the social value in it (see his posts on blogging). I would certainly publicize my blog more, or not be anonymous (except to my friends and close aquaintances who would obviously recognize me by my profile) if I weren't worried someone from my school would see it.

Regarding my daughter, I can't help but compare myself at her age--an avid reader--with her relative lack of interest due to electronic media. But we are two different people. And she reads fairly well. It's just that given the choice between reading and something electronic...well...