Hope For The Future

Possibly against my better judgement, I allowed Ian to create a YouTube account last week. Since then he’s been producing and publishing videos that can best be described as “unique.”

They’re not bad - okay, they kinda are - but his videos are really no worse than some of the content that he seems to enjoy watching on YouTube. I haven’t figured out whether it’s a generational thing or a YouTube thing, but the channels he enjoys visiting, the sorts of videos he seems to get a kick out of watching, all seem so alien to me. I do not see the appeal nor the entertainment value.

He’s certainly enjoying creating and publishing them.

However, sometimes I start to worry about whether he will learn to appreciate more refined aspects of art and literature. Is he going to grow up believing that a 3 minute video snippet labeled “Epic Fail” is the pinnacle of comedy? That watching someone breakdown how to complete level 10 of Legend of Zelda is a worthwhile way to spend your time in front of a computer?

But then he walks into the kitchen and tells me that he really enjoys writing poetry, and then proceeds to share two poems that he has prepared for his Advanced Language Arts class. Not only are they well written, but they demonstrate real creativity. I can tell that he put some honest effort into writing and structuring the poem to convey his feelings and also conjure a particular response in the reader.

That gives me hope.