Solomon Smith’s Gamer World

Solomon Smith: gaming, autism and connection

Meet Solomon Smith, a long-time Youth ARC living legend and one of our most iconic regulars! As a person living with autism, Solomon is really passionate about raising awareness for autism. An incredibly giving and thoughtful young individual, this interview is one you’ll definitely want to read!

If someone was to ask, ‘Who is Solomon?’

how would you explain who you are in a nutshell?

Enthusiastic nerd who loves helping our community.

That is perfect; that is absolutely correct! One really amazing thing you did many years ago at Youth ARC was raise some money for autism. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

I was wanting to do something good when I planned to cut off my long rats-tail, which I had been growing for 16 years!

It was a looooong rats-tail (haha)! What brought that on? Can you tell us how it all went down?

Mostly, I felt like I wanted to run an event to raise awareness for autism and it worked out well in terms of being able to plan it. I raised about $2000 in total, which I think was about the fifth highest in Australia at the time. If you’d like to see the grand act, you could probably find it on the Youth ARC Facebook page from many years ago.

Nice work Solomon! That was quite some time ago. What’s your earliest memory of going into Youth ARC?

Probably about 2012-2013, when I started getting a bus to Youth ARC, which was followed by Bellerive Drama.

Seven years ago! In your opinion, what value do you think the youth centre offers to young people?

It’s connectivity: it’s a great social hub! It also has a good variety of things for every demographic and audience within range.

What about some of the facilities? I know you’ve had a good thrashing of video games over the years with a bit of Halo and the old classics. What are your thoughts about the evolution of video games?

Well, I find (at the moment at least) with our youth demographic, we all seem to be playing more general fighting games on the whole. With video games, I feel not much has changed.

What’s come to your attention in the online video gaming world, thinking about something like COVID, where a lot of people have had to go indoors?

Coincidentally enough, a lot of games are actually putting in their own messages. For example, Dirt Rally 2 has it on their banner while you’re driving around. Also Play Stations are currently having issues, like it’s being really slow. Xbox was having similar issues about two weeks ago.

What about finding a job or employment? What were some of the adventures there?

Well you guys have provided me with heaps of opportunities for volunteer work, especially with the Youth Advisory Squad. In terms of other work, I just generally always put my name out there and then I’ve heard back about things. I always like to put my hand up when applicable.

If you could do the most ideal job you could ever think of, what would you like to be doing?

To be quite honest in terms of the ideal job which is practical, I’d like to be a gaming machine attendant and bar tender.

What a perfect mix! Could you do them both at the same time?

Yes! If it ever reopens, I’d like to become a bar tender at the Reply Bar in the mall, which had to be shut down due to COVID, after it had only been open for about two weeks!

Tell me a little but about some of your involvement with the Youth Advisory Squad? What is Y.A.S. and what would you like to see happen in the future?

Being a Y.A.S. member, we get to help advise the Hobart City Council on the

‘youth demographic’ and matters that are pertinent. The main things that have come up, for example, are mental health and public transport. Nonetheless that’s our general setup. We get together, we have our meetings and we try to get councillors or advisors in from council where possible. In terms of the future, I’m just looking forward to hanging out in person at Youth ARC again as COVID had us meeting up from home and online only. It’s been good though; at least we kept some structure and routine for Y.A.S. even if we weren’t discussing diplomatic stuff.

That’s been the big adjustment in the digital realm, looking at a computer screen talking to each other. Did you find the adjustment difficult? Did you see any pros and cons?

In terms of communication on a societal level, I think we actually had better connection in the digital world. Funnily enough, I think we’ve had our period of people going into a frenzy over trying to get supplies they didn’t really need that much of! But I have seen a lot of positive messages online instead of what could be a toxic cesspit if you’re not careful!

You’ve got a lot of strong and valuable opinions. If you could magically wave a wand and make some serious changes for young people in Tasmania, what would be the top things you'd like to see improved?

Well as alluded to, we need to have more mental health supports, especially in terms of the fact I still see a problem with social stigma. Public transport is a major one too, in terms of cost.

Is that something you’ve seen potentially improved over the years? Or has it become more difficult?

In terms of my public transport, that’s been up and down. But in a general sense, we need better and cheaper bus transport, not even necessarily rural areas. For example, the bus to Sorrell isn’t really good; adult concession is like $3 and full price adult is about $7. It might be cheaper to buy petrol and drive!

Well Solomon, it’s been a great chatting! We’re looking forward to the day where we can reunite and have a good game of Halo at Youth ARC again!

Indeed. See you when I next do!