Public Spaces in the Digital

I was still thinking about the concept of the public space in the digital, especially with our discussion surrounding Second Life. However, something I feel worth mentioning was a “second life” for younger people — I’m curious if I’m the only one that remembers wasting all my time on websites like Animal Jam and Club Penguin, where you essentially play around as a virtual animal avatar. While a lot of those sites were host to much drama and exploitation of kids by monetizing anything fun or customizable for your avatar, they were still sites designed as a space solely for young kids. This was especially important in a world that seemed to be getting more and more dangerous (parents too afraid to let their kids go out comes to mind) and public spaces were getting less and less accessible and safe for younger people to log off and touch grass. However, I believe that the decline of sites like these (especially with the death of Flash) marks a less safe internet for kids to go onto — especially with the alternative being to go on Twitter and TikTok, which I believe to be much more toxic and dangerous and increases exposure of kids to adult content that they may not be ready for.

I feel like in the case of younger people, it enables kids to have fun with friends and allows them to explore the web in such a way that they are not exposed to the horrors of the internet all at once, with kids taking priority in decisions. While kids couldn’t spend non-school time outside all the time, especially now with global warming turning outside spaces more or less inhospitable and not-fun to be outside in, these internet spaces were available.

This youtube video specifically about Animal Jam was really entertaining and inspired this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEUjRuTE520