my earliest memory is of sitting in a hammock with my brother and him reading The Magic Treehouse to me. As we both grew up we each got into reading (alone) then single-player video games, then online gaming but never co-op. At some point, we went from making a solo activity into a social one to making a social activity into a solo one.
the screens were never the problem, we did it to books first. the problem was that we forgot to be happy that someone else’s life was improved by our presence in it. after we forgot that, we got scared to invite each other to do something together, or assumed the other wouldn’t enjoy it. then, we assumed we wouldn’t enjoy it ourselves. then, we stopped even thinking about spending time together altogether.
this post isn’t just about me and my brother. we can all rebuild.