Socialising online, in kids' own words
Jack, 10, says of using Zoom: ‘When you first do it it's quite exciting. It’s like you can talk to someone when you can’t go to their house. Sometimes if there’s more than one person doing it you don’t know who’s talking and it can be quite hard to listen, and it can be awkward when it freezes.
“It’s not as good as seeing my friends in real life, but it’s better than nothing.”
Calls involving lots of children at the same time can get fairly chaotic; Tommy, six, said: “It can get quite twirly if there’s lots of people. Once I did one with half of my class and it was mainly just people saying ‘hello’.
When you’re with your friends you just play with them, when you see them on Zoom you have to think of something to say. I like seeing them, but I’m sad I don’t get to play with them”
Children are exploring these apps and finding their own ways of using them. Nine-year-old Pippa has been using the whiteboard function on Zoom to share drawing sessions with her friends. Her dad, Elliott, said: “It’s amazing how children will explore all the functions of each app so playfully, things that we didn’t even know existed. Pippa and her pals have found a tool on Zoom where they can all add to a single drawing, live, while they are chatting to each other. It’s so creative.”