Hey, listen to this! That kid’s been playing games all day again!
W-well, no need to get so worked up…
When I was a kid, I also…
Okay, okay, maybe this is a bit too much.
Right?
Say something to him, please!
Alright, alright. I’ll talk to him later…
But you know, maybe it’s partly our fault.
We’ve only shown the kids such a narrow world to live in.
Maybe that’s why they’re so drawn to games.
For example…
Oh, here we go again. Another one of your long speeches.
Fine, I’ll listen — for now.
…For example, this was actually the theme of my graduation thesis:
They say a person’s character is shaped in childhood through interactions with many different people — receiving feedback and recognition from them.
In other words, growing up in diverse communities is important (*1).
And not just communities — it also means living within many different stories.
Stories?
Humans live within many layers of stories —
nations, regions, nature, families, schools…
But kids today mostly go back and forth between home and school.
So they often experience only a very limited range of stories.
Connections to local communities and nature have grown weaker,
and society is dominated by the giant narratives of capital and science.
As a result, opportunities to be shaped by diverse stories and develop a tough, resilient character have become scarce.
Wow, you sound even more preachy than usual today.
Maybe.
But here’s what I was thinking:
Living only within the story of the city blinds you to many things.
You need another story woven into your daily life.
That’s why we moved the office to the countryside and started this two-base lifestyle.
I knew it. Here we go again…
And of course, you’ll say it’s all “for the kids,” right?
Exactly — for the kids!
I believe that to survive in the coming era,
they’ll need the toughness to navigate many different stories.
To play hard within multiple worlds,
to throw themselves fully into each story.
It won’t be easy — but we have to try.
sigh
I knew I shouldn’t have asked…
My graduation thesis was titled “A Study of Cooperative Housing from the Perspective of Community.”
Its main theme was how to create communities through architecture that help shape character.
Over time, this expanded to the idea that it’s not just human communities — living within many different stories is equally important.
Today, giant narratives like capitalism and science dominate, along with the modern narrative of “division and delegation” I’ve written about before.
Other, smaller stories have lost their presence.
It’s hard to escape these huge narratives,
but I believe that bringing many small stories into our lives can soften their dominance.
And part of our role as adults is to pass these stories on to children.
For the record, I also played tons of games when I was young.
That led me into game-making and programming, which became a passion and eventually influenced my career.
So you never know how one story will lead to another — even if, as parents, we can’t help but worry.