Anthony Ososki

Q: How are you sir? What is your name? How old are you?

I’m good good. I’m Anthony and I’m thirteen.

Q: So today we’re going to talk about COVID-19 and we’re also going to talk about your experience with connecting with friends and family and making sure you’re like with your friends. So have you been what doing these past few weeks during the pandemic?

I have been playing a lot of video games. I’ve been on call [with] my friends a lot. Um, I go on walk[s] sometimes, but I’m always waiting for people.

Q: Do you think that video games are a positive thing during this time?

Yes. I think it’s a positive thing because I have been connecting with my friends. I could talk to them for like hours a day. I connect with them like, almost every day.

Q: How does it work [in video games]?

So basically, I play video games. So I’m like on a team with them, and I can talk to them through the game. So we are like working as a team and playing the game. And we can just talk to each other this entire time. So it’s like connection.

Q: Aside from video games, do you also call your friends?

I do go on call with them throughout the day. And we just talk for a while, because we can’t really like lose each other.

Q: Do you think that like helps you be able to like cope whose time?

Yeah, definitely. Cuz otherwise, I think I just go crazy.

Q: What do you think would happen if you didn’t have video games?

Well, it would definitely be a lot more bored because I won’t be able to like know what my friends would be doing or anything. Oh, I won’t be able to talk with them as much. Right, and I won’t be able to like know what’s happening with them like how they’re going through [this time].

Q: What if people don’t normally like video games? Would you say they should try it out during this time to connect with their friends?

Yes, like you can. There’s a lot of games that you can find that might like suit you that’s not necessarily just fighting games or shooting games. But yeah, just so you can be with your friends.

Q: So if somebody would want to do that,  what type of device should they use (Xbox, Wii, etc)? Are there other things that you could use?

You could use your phone. Your phone has like almost a lot of games that even games that you play on ps4 or Xbox. They have most likely put it onto the phone so you can spy on the phone. And on the App Store there’s like thousands upon thousands of games.

Q: Can you still talk to their friends through that?

Yes, you can play with that. There’s mics which means that you can talk with people in game or you can just go on call at the same time. I’m not playing video games, I just play on FaceTime. But if I’m playing video games, I either go on mic, which means that I connect my headset like a headphones to the console or controller, and I can just talk to them [with] that or otherwise I just go on call the same time.

Q: Obviously parents aren’t that happy with kids playing video games all the time. But do you think that it’s like a good idea? Like for kids who play video games 24/7? Or can you socially take a break from it and do other things during this time?

Um, I’ll definitely say if I was a parent, I’d be more loose about it because there’s not really much you can do. I mean, of course they shouldn’t be playing it for like the entire day. They should either like go on a run or do some sort of exercise at some point. During this time, they [parents] should probably [be more losose]. If they’re connecting with their friends through it, they should probably let them be on electronics more than usual.

Q: How would you say that we as a community are dealing with quarantine during this time?

You’re [Tana] definitely doing really good with a quarantine. In my opinion, I haven’t seen most people.  There’s not a lot of people running around, a lot of people in big groups, and they’ve shut down a lot of the big group activities at restaurants, which has definitely been good.

Q: A lot of families struggle with being together for so long. Do you think that your family’s doing a pretty good job with that?

Yes, I think we’re doing pretty good, like not getting too annoyed with each other or like not freaking out too much and being nice to each other. It’s very good to have different rooms and stuff.

Q: Do you think as the weather gets warmer, social distancing will slowly ease off?

Um, yeah, it’s definitely most people [will] want to be outside at these times. I’ve heard that they won’t have like a vaccine for it for a while, but hopefully, they’ll figure out like quarantining and separate people that have it from other people. And hopefully by the summer, I’ll be able to at least hang out my friends sometimes or be able to be with people more.

Q: Besides video games, what other positive things have you gained from this whole experience?

Besides playing video games, I’ve definitely figured out some other things to do during this time. Like, I’ve been reading a lot more. I’ve figured out new, fun activities to play. I’ve come up with some games that like I just like to play by myself. I’ve been reading a lot of Harry Potter throughout the day. Um, I’ve also looked in my closet and found fun games. I found like cup stacking. And I did that for a couple of hours. I looked up some YouTube videos and figured out some fun ways to do it.

Q: What activities have you done with your family during this time?

We have been going on runs a lot. We had a picnic the other day which was really nice. We got to see the sunset from a nice hill. Um, so that was very fun and exciting. We have also been working out together or like in the house. We do like fun activities. Sometimes we do something every hour throughout the day. And so that was really fun.