And I thought I could be harsh in enforcing silly rules. Let the kid play modern games with his friends you monster.
I just happen to have a NES classic for myself, and that's what he chooses to play with me.
I think having three consoles is crazy, but I have promised him the third when/if he completes Mario.
On the plus side, we have a great deal of fun playing hide and seek with the morph modpack.
His friends all play minecraft on the Switch, but they don’t have mods so he thinks it boring.
Roblox is a lot more open-ended with what it lets it’s users create, which leads to a lot of violent and not safe for children content, mixed with some pretty aggressive monetization. I don’t have a child, but if I did I’d rather let them play Call of Duty (one of the older ones without microtransactions) than leave them alone with Roblox.
Now that he’s accepted that I’m not going to buy any Robux it’s ok.
This, so much of fitting in with your generational peers is having shared frames of reference to whatever media you grow up with.
But I guess even outside the home he's been exposed to other consoles via his friends, and their parents. I'm certainly not holding him back and forcing him to play weird/old games alone!
Eh, I don't think you need to. The internet is crammed full of judgmental comments that people make based on a single sentence or two, often without any attempt at asking clarifying questions. People just generally need to take a breath and not assume the worst about someone just because they don't go immediately into a high level of detail about their personal lives in front of a bunch of strangers.
Do I need to join some kind of religious cult?
Serious question (except for the cult part).
In general I think it’s harder than it was 20 years ago. The monoculture is basically dead. Instead of everyone having the choice of the same 3 TV shows on Friday night, there is an endless number of options on streaming services or YouTube, not to mention games, Twitch, etc. However, having something will at least allow them to to have a connection with a peer group who was in the same niche, and other things have grown big enough to transcend some of that, like Mr Beast and Mark Rober for example. I think a lot of people, even outside the core audience have seen the videos and know who they are.
This doesn’t need to be the center of culture, but awareness of it still helps round someone out.
To touch on religion… In the US, even if someone isn’t a Christian, I think it is still extremely helpful to be aware of the stories and traditions of Christianity. It is such a huge part of the culture and there are references all over the place that would be missed without this knowledge.
The only time these things wouldn’t be useful is, like you said, in some kind of small religious community they will never leave, or a cult.
People don't need 100% coverage of what's on trend for their generation to fit, but they do need some exposure. I'm sure we all remember the "my mom doesn't let me watch tv" kid from our youth that had trouble fitting in, but rarely remember which was the "I don't really like Power Rangers, but do like Ninja Turtles" kid because they still fit in.
https://www.theonion.com/cool-dad-raising-daughter-on-media-...
Now he can learn anything due to having been exposed to the basics.