The ten year lag

JustBeckett etsy shop
"How come they haven't added me back as a friend on Facebook?" she whined, petulantly.

"Will you relax?  You just sent the friend request last night," I replied.

No, this isn't a conversation between me and a girlfriend about some cute boy, it's one between myself and my mother this past weekend.  Yes, sigh, my mom is on Facebook at long last and addicted to it, in all of its sinking, waning glory.  She has already figured out how to stalk her old college and high school classmates, pore over pictures of them and their families, and tell me all about how so-and-so still looks so young and how such-and-such has x number of grandkids.  After sifting through a few hundred pictures taken by myself and my sister, we've uploaded a profile picture to her page so her friends can see what she looks like in return.  And I can now look forward to being compared to her friends' successful, beautiful, talented, rich children here in the States as well as internationally.

At this point, I've realized that there is at least a 10 year lag between a technology and its adoption by my parents.  My parents are both on email and are at that point in their emailing lifecycle where they religiously forward powerpoint presentations of puppies and kittens frolicking in green meadows, videos of people with beautiful voices on Italian/Korean/Japanese/Chinese versions of American Idol, jokes about wives, husbands, mother-in-laws, and every single health article known to man.  Do you remember when you used to do that, blindly forward every single funny/sad/amazing/scary email you received?  I do, and I think it was when we were still using dial up on our one landline that you had to handcrank with a rotary dial.  If they start forwarding chain letter emails, I might just throw my laptop out the window.

My sister thoughtfully bought my parents' both tablets for Christmas this year and then promptly moved away one month into the new year, abandoning them to figure out how to check email on an iPad on their own.  We're still working on that one, thanks a lot Siri.  My mom, who has never gushed over anything that she's owned ever, proclaimed to me that she "loooves her iPad."  And she certainly does.  If you ever see an Asian lady fish her iPad out of her purse and hold it up like a map to buried treasure, that's my mom taking pictures with her iPad.  In public.  She's that lady.  And despite how many times I ask her to, she's not going to stop.

Some day, in the distant future I hope, I know that I will be that older lady, goggle-eyed at the zooming drones, flying cars, and implanted cell phones we will have by then.  I'll be stopping kids on their hovercraft tricycles, asking them how to "turn on this darn chip embedded in my hand" and they'll just shake their heads at me.  But until that day, I will stubbornly continue to keep up with the hare that is technology and also doggedly ignore my mom's Facebook friend request.


Comments

  1. Awww, accept her as a friend. My son has just reluctantly accepted me on Facebook and it made me so happy. I do keep asking both my children how to do this, that and the other and despite the rolling of eyes, I think they quite like showing off how technologically advanced they are !!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahahaha...love this post, Rooth! Parents....what can u do, eh? My mom keeps asking me to help her understand Candy Crush, even though I don't play it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So funny! Parents are so socially awkward on social media it just kills me. My dad comes across as a bit leery and a total creeper because his sense of humor doesn't translate. My cousin had to tell him he sounded pervy not that long ago. Awkward!!! And my mum sent a facebook message to me and my ex best friend yesterday with a link to some article or other. Was it an accident? Was she being a trouble maker? Both are entirely possible. Facebook is the worst!

    ReplyDelete
  4. If she wasn't supposed to take pictures with the iPad, it wouldn't have a camera. :D

    Go mom!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. PS - Her friend's children will be found wanting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ha! This reminds me of the time my dad and I showed my 80+ grandmother how to play solitaire on my laptop. My clunky, crushingly heavy laptop. This was years ago. My parents are early adopters of technology. I think it's a generational thing. Aging hippies and all. And we know how on-the-forefront of technology hippies are. ;) I'm just trying to keep up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chain mail letters!! Oh man, what a blast from the past right there. My parents were early adopters of cell phones/texting (my dad texted before I did!) but we just got my mommom a tablet for Christmas. Now she loves playing Bejeweled Blitz and checking Facebook. So adorable. Oh the older generation! I wonder what our kids will say about us one day, you know?

    ReplyDelete
  8. that is so so cute. :) i've tried to actually get my dad on facebook so it'll be easier to share pictures with him, etc. but he just does not get it. he loves his email. i'm just glad he knows how to do email! and chain mails. omg - send it to 5 of your friends and you'll have good luck for the net 7 years. i remember those. so fondly! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. That your mother joined Facebook and is in stalker mode is so cute :D

    My Dad stalks me on Facebook... lol

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is hilarious AND adorable! I always laugh when I see someone taking photos with their iPad :-) My mom isn't into Facebook yet, but she's a WhatsApp fiend!

    ReplyDelete
  11. oh my goodness this was the funniest thing i have read in weeks. the forwarding emails of powerpoint puppies, i laughed so hard i could that one acronym that makes me cringe, but i won't, but i could. so hilarious. so i ever make out to texas, first stop has to be your parents house, i just love them so much. and it's so obvious that you might kind of adore them :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Parents on social media crack me up. I'm lucky my mom never really got that into Facebook (except for "tending her farm" - she loves that dang farm game). My in-laws, however, LOOOOOOOVE keeping up with technology as best they can, so I get one of those forwarded emails you mentioned from my father-in-law at least once a week. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Um, this is the best blog post ever. I feel EXACTLY the same way about my own parents and grandparents. It's kind of hilarious, and kind of not. All the chain emails of nature's best wildlife to poems to wise advice about life, etc., etc. always cracks me up just a bit. I love receiving the comfort of them, and I really hope I become that person to my own children and grandchildren one day too!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Haha, this post is fantastic! I am glad my Dad is not on Facebook! He is still trying to figure out how an iPhone works.

    ReplyDelete
  15. lol.. my mom and dad love the ipad and its funny how they feel so technological and hip while using it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. oh no, the day my mum joins FB, I go cold turkey on my internet addiction, move to a farm in the middle of nowhere and start using smoke signals to communicate with my neighbours!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. So cute, your mom loving her iPad and Facebook. My mom used to forward me every single email and then I asked her to stop, hehe. She's also on FB and even IG now. It's cute.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh man. Your post has me laughing out loud on this very late night at work. Aren't parents funny? I refuse to believe I will turn into them when I am older (gosh I am already old) and when I have kids but alas I can already see it starting to happen. Lol.

    ps. Your mom is SO cute. I love that she loves her iPad.

    ReplyDelete
  19. LOL!!! I think most iPad picture takers are in our parents' and grandparents' generation.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Your mom is cute and I'm sure she'll do as much bragging as stalking. I have never actually seen anyone take a picture with an iPad.

    My mom actually tells me what happens on Facebook because I never log on :).

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oh man, the worst was my grandma (she's not had an interest in Facebook, thankfully). When we first introduced email to her we would receive around 7 forwards a day. SEVEN! And she would believe everything. One day she was all up in arms because Obama was going to chance the national anthem to "It's a Small World." Sigh.

    PS--I love the image of your mom whipping out her iPad for a photo. :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. For years I tried to get my Dad onto Facebook. He's disabled so mostly housebound and I thought it would be a good way for him to keep in touch with family as a huge chunk of my family are on there. For years he resisted and then my Mom bought him an iPad mini and he finally signed on and now all he does is play Tetris and z"stalks" us kids on Facebook.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Reads