Our generation was one of the first to discover the wonders of a screen, much of which my time in particular consisted of a constant online animal community. While the idea of children having access to such technology is widely condemned, I seemed to have gained a lot of perspective that little did my ten-year-old brain know, would be valuable in my adulthood life. Essentially what I am saying is: Webkinz played a huge part in preparing me for adulthood.
First of all, most of the key to survival has to do with money, as does life. The thing about Webkinz though is that the stakes are high. If you do not fill the quota for food, happiness, or health, your pet is likely to die. How morbid, right? Maybe so, but it taught me that if I wanted to survive, I would have to work for it.
As a Webkinz user, you are expected to survive on the money you have and continue to produce. These Webkinz Dollars can be attained by playing games in the arcade. Money is awarded based on your score, and through this comes the first lesson. See, there were games that I found more compelling than others, but in some of my most favorite games I didn’t make enough money in order to give my pets what they needed. So I was forced with a choice: Do I spend more time on the games I have more fun playing but make less money, or the games that I do not feel challenge me and allow me to make easier, larger amounts of money? I ended up balancing the two. I loved Tile Towers, a brain demanding game in which I felt intelligently stimulated. Unfortunately, I knew Cash Cow was the easy road out, a quick and easy game requiring little to no brain power that would produce quick results.
I was taught at a young age through this pixelated community the terror of choosing a career path based on what you love or what makes the most money. But that is not all that I took away from this site. Now that I live mostly on my own, I have found that I know how to allocate spending. I never thought I’d say it but my budgeting skills, among numerous other life skills, can be clearly attributed to the lessons I learned in Webkinz.
