My son put me onto a new app tonight.

“Mum, mum, you have to try this…get on board!” he said to me.

 

Curiosity -what’s inside the box?

 

It’s a game app that has one goal – smash through a horrendous amount of layers, pixel by pixel, to reach the middle where there will be a prize.

“The whole world is helping out to smash through this cube!” he added excitedly. Yes, but what’s the prize I wanted to know. It seems the prize at the end of this task is indeterminate  and vague at best. This didn’t stop son speculating on what the prize could be and pleading with me to allow him to set up an itunes account before his 13th Birthday so that IF he were to be the lucky winner of said prize, then it would go to HIM and not to our family account.

Husband wanted to know what the aim of this task was and I have a few speculations. So while Son speculates on the prize in the middle, I speculate of the motivation behind such an activity. My first thought was that it could be a social networking experiment. Let’s see how quickly the word will spread about this latest craze with a carrot of an undefined prize at the end. (The marketing certainly worked on my son). Then I started playing the game and had some time to think about other aspects of being hooked and engaged in this activity(while I was smashing blocks). There is maths and art engagement in this activity as well as strategizing and teamwork.

Whatever the motivations it has a new convert. I love this app for the sheer mindlessness of the process of touching bricks and making them disappear in any pattern, order or routine that takes my fancy. I usually read in bed last thing at night to wind down but this replaces that habit for the moment. I can engage in a conversation and smash bricks but I can’t cook dinner and smash bricks… without burning it.