On Wednesday evening, I participated in a Teacher's Quorum activity by being a driver. The activity was that, as a Quorum, we went and visited a couple of less active members to invite them out to some future events and activities. No one was home at either house, but it was good of the boys to make the effort.
While I was driving, I got hear what the boys in my car were talking about. I ended up with the nerdy kids, which was weird. As someone who was definitely a dork in high school, I thought I'd be able to join in on their conversation. Well, not really. They talked a lot about video games, which are fine, but since I don't usually spend my entertainment time with that particular medium, I didn't really know what they were talking about. Then they started talking about cartoons, which I have at least a cursory knowledge of most animated shows, except for anime, which is what they were talking about. I asked a few questions here and there and tried to be involved, but it soon became clear that I was being out-geeked.
While all of that is fine (I guess), I am concerned that they spend too much time online, especially one boy. The internet is full of terrible things, but I'm more worried about them not developing social skills - an area in which these boys appear to be delayed. Life is hard enough to navigate normally, but it can become a bit of a nightmare if you don't have the right social skills.
One of my goals while I'm serving in this calling will be to help these boys feel more comfortable offline. I don't think that's the main reason I have this calling, but I do think that it's one of them. And as someone that is still a nerd but much less of a dork, I think I'm just the one to do it.
1 comment:
So is a nerd tech savvy, and a dork is socially clueless? I always thought they were the same, but I think this is how you have used these words. Did I get it right?
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