“Look mom! Look at all the people that liked my game!”
“Uh huh…cool! Do you know any of those people?” I question
“No. They are just people who played my game. Look! Look!”
“Can you comment on people’s games?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
“No mommy,” she answered looking away with a look that told me she wasn’t telling the truth.
“Olivia…do you? I won’t be mad. Tell me the truth,” I press.
“Yes, mommy.”
“Show me,” I say as I move to sit right next to her on the couch.
Createrria had become an instant love, as soon as I showed it to her. Make your own games. Play your own games. Share them with others. Get and give feedback on games. Earn gems. She loved it and I did too…but I was suddenly concerned. I wasn’t concerned about her desire to connect with others or her desire to share or create. I was concerned with the medium in which she was going to start developing these skills.
I knew it was time.
“Sweetheart, come scootch next to me. Mommy wants to show you something.”
I pulled out my phone and opened the app. I showed her the pictures. I showed her our family and friends that were on their too. I told her I thought she was old enough, that I could trust her enough and that I thought she was ready to have an Instagram account (a private one). We set it up, added her profile picture, we wrote her bio and I showed her family and friends she could start to follow. She was ready to start sharing pictures of her world.
“Olivia, you should share that on Instagram. Mary so and so would love to see that.”
“No, that’s ok mommy,” she shrugged her shoulders, answered and skipped away.
“That’s such a great craft. You should share it on Instagram,” I encouraged.
“Maybe later Mommy, ” she shrugged her shoulders, answered and skipped away.
This went on for a few weeks. She had not found what I had thought she would….maybe I had been wrong. Continue reading “Instagram…Its For More Then Just Pictures”