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2010: A Look Back (Part 1)

My Rose-Tinted Glasses and Me

By Gideon BrownPublished about a year ago Updated about a year ago 4 min read
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Sometimes when you're going down the road, it's nice to look back to see where you've been.

I hope (perhaps in vain) that one day, people remember the early 2010s with the same blissful nostalgia they recognize in the 80s or 90s. I know I do. It was the age I grew up in, an era without COVID, constant riots, or global panic. Back then, you could stream a movie and rent a DVD from Netflix without paying for a double subscription. Back in those days, Zoom just meant moving fast. And maybe best of all, back in those days, we had Flash games.

If you're around twenty, there's a good chance you just nodded in satisfaction at the mere mention of Flash. But for those who don't know what a Flash game is, boy, have I got a story for you. In 1996, Adobe released a piece of software, one that promised to arm every restless imagination with the tools they needed to break free. Adobe Flash Player, as our hero was called, put powerful, user-friendly web design tools in the hands of the public. This meant that anyone anywhere could design a video game. And for nameless coders and graphic designers, this was a godsend. Just like that, the floodgates were open wide for thousands and thousands of hours' worth of free, no-strings-attached gaming. Some were good, and some were... less good; but when you were an unambitious preteen with too much time on your hands, you took what you could get. And I was definitely an unambitious preteen with too much time on his hands.

It's tough to say how old I was when I first played a Flash game, but when I was around ten, I started obsessing over them. I sank hours into the noble pursuit of scouring every questionable gaming site for the next painless challenge, the next drive-through surge of adrenaline, trying vainly to simulate an eternal high, to keep my button-mashing sugar rush going forever.

And then, it ended.

My parents had called for a complete stop to it all. Computer games, TV, mobile games; we would spend the entire summer without them. For the first time, I was without video games. And for the first time in a long while, I faced the prospect of a life without my cheap and easy victories.

I don't remember the first few weeks of that summer, but I've heard stories. I had begun going through withdrawals. I would lie in bed, stare at the ceiling, and scream and scream and scream. And why shouldn't I have? I had lost my buffer between myself and reality—no more vicarious escapes through pixelated heroes. No more burying myself in a tomb of light and sound and color. Now, I couldn't slay my giants with a few keystrokes. From now on, I lived in the real world.

You know something? I originally wrote this as a rosy, happy-go-lucky nostalgia trip celebrating the creative virtues of a bygone era. But sitting here as a grown man in a quiet house blissfully void of the cheap thrills of my youth, I realized that parts of it were pretty ugly. I could never enjoy science camp, LEGO club, or anything that didn't exist on a computer screen. And looking back, I wish I could have. Maybe if I had walked away sooner, I wouldn't struggle with confidence. Or social anxiety. Or my perfectionism. Don't get me wrong; I still love the 2010s. But I wasn't really... present for most of it. Video games could have been a wonderful part of my childhood. But instead, I let them be the whole thing.

Well, I'm still just a man, and no man can change the past. But here in the present, I can work on the things I forgot when I was a kid. How to have a real conversation. How to be proud of my work. How to live in a way where I don't have to escape to be vicarious. And I may be 21 and still living with my parents (the ones who pushed me in the right direction ten years ago); it's true. But I've made friends. I've held a job. And then, I found what I love to do, and I'm pursuing it full-time. So if you ask me, it's going alright.

I didn't have an early start. But at least I'm on the road. And I can't wait to see what's at the end of it.

And for you gamers out there, if you want my advice, let video games be a part of your life, but not the whole thing. Because as great as they are, other things are worth a look, too.

Oh, and as for that happy-go-lucky nostalgia trip, stay tuned. Because while I did spend a lot of the 2010s in a single place, I did have a few good times...

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About the Creator

Gideon Brown

Gideon Brown is an amateur writer who specializes in character building, suspense building, world building... pretty much just building. He sincerely thanks you for visiting and would appreciate it if you would share any stories you enjoy.

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