Thread by @Ninawildflower

I'm playing several games here, but none of them are on the shelves behind me.

I'm playing a status game.

More importantly, I'm helping my children to play status games too.

It's one way we help them to keep masking. A🧵that might help you too.

#CovidIsNotOver #MaskUp

My children are lone-maskers in school. They could stop at any time, worn down by the pressure to conform.

There are several reasons they have lasted so long. One is their status.

I'm stealing ideas from "The Status Game" by @wstorr

My son has read it. I'm part-way through.

This is a "explain everything using 1 concept" book that reduces human social behaviour to a competition for status.

It's accessable and might help Coviding teenagers understand social pressures, though it's not about Covid.

I recommend everyone study some social psychology.

Protecting yourself from Covid inevitably requires giving up some opportunities to increase your status.

3 members of my household are full-time in school, but I'm not able to have a beer with my boss, or talk about how amazing not-a-Coldplay were.

I'm lucky enough to have some online status that helps me manage, day-to-day.

But my children are not online. We have to build them up in other ways.

They regularly play Dungeons & Dragons (other games too) with friends who don't mask. This has helped them gain status.

D&D has more explicit rules than real life. It also stops. Status games don't.

My twins are able to take advantage of there being 2 of them. They can usually invite others to join games that they have started. This builds their status.

This week they boosted the status of

one of their friends by inviting him to be "Dungeon Master" for the first time, and supporting him in the role.

This also boosts my children's status. You can gain status by being a decent person.

Wearing a mask can result in a boost to your status, if you play the game right.

Masks enable activities. They don't restrict them.

My children have missed less school than their unmasked friends.

My children have won events in masks. They've had top marks in tests, and they've been recognised as the best students in their year by several subject teachers.

The cruel flipside is that most children haven't been able to sustain masking. Most adults too.

The concern over *loss of status* has been too great.

*personally I prefer explanations at the level of simple conformity - people don't mask because those around them don't mask.

If you are trying to support children to keep masking, there are lots of ways to do it - you know your own children and you know what will, and won't work - but finding ways to boost their status may help.

If it helps, I'm so impressed with children who have tried to mask.

Personally I think "allies" help more than "status" - hence the very, very large number of mask pics I post.

Anyway, adult maskers, if YOU want status, what can you do?

Are there any status games you can play?

You probably recognise them.

Associate yourself with other amazing people. Praise them. Be an ally. Follow & follow-back.

I've done this lots!

Baby Can I Hold You (Tracy Chapman cover)

This works in real life, and online.

But be humble - people are very sensitive to "tall poppies".

#CovidIsNotOver

Of course, in both the real and the online world, attacking others can be a great way to gain status.

I've attacked others, and been attacked. I've gained status by attacking others. Others have gained status by attacking me.

Even if someone seems to show the correct values

you can still attack them for being insufficiently pious, or you can question their motives.

On the one hand it might make it harder to work together. On the other, it may stop people making silly mistakes.

Terry Pratchett would have found us amusing (text - "Small Gods").

I'm sure lots of people learned these lessons a long time ago. I'm a #latecomer to these things.

Interestingly, the expert on online communities like ours decided not to get involved - a missed opportunity to gain status.

You can also gain status in thousands of different ways.

Animals might have pecking orders, or an alpha in the group, but humans have limitless opportunities to form groups and compete for status. Sometimes we call them "hobbies". Sometimes we are fans.

Obsessions (original)

Remember that Twitter is horribly addictive because it taps right into our need for status.

(This is mostly a note to myself)

I'm not going to spoil the book, though there is a chapter on antivaxxers.

If you are a musician and you are missing out on opportunities to boost your status because you are protecting your health, or your family, please get in touch.

If you want a follow, ask - more status!