So, my mom has gone all “2.0″ on me.
Check this-
A couple of years back she comes to me and says, “I want an email address”. Now, I should tell you that my mom has an accent. She’s Portuguese. Hearing the words, “I want an email address” in that accent is a riot, plus all sorts of cute. Anyway.
My sister hooked it up. She got the email address and then we didn’t hear anything about it for a while. I think she sent us like one email (which we typed for her and sent to ourselves) and that was it. But then something happened..
All of her friends’ kids were emailing them.
Holy shit.
So we went through the whole process of setting up another email account (because it expires or blows up or whatever if you don’t use it for a few months) and explained, once again, how to use it.
And then we got this:
“why you not emailing me. love you mom”
And that was only the beginning.
Facebook was next.
So we set up her account because “you two always leave me out of everything” and within one week she Facebook friended 50% of my friend list. I guess in one way I thought, ‘cool, my mom’s down with the tech’ but then we got one of these sent to our inbox:
for Easter dinner on Sunday, please vote for two of these:
-fish
-roast beef
-clams
-soup
-chicken
We voted, to make her happy and because we genuinely thought this was a good system. It was all in vain though. She made everything on the list anyway.
But I guess her determination to be on the ball when it comes to technology shouldn’t surprise me. She was the first person I knew to have a cell phone, which meant that I had to have one too. I was in the eighth grade. Yes, my mom is all sorts of cool.
Although that doesn’t come without its consequences.
Don’t even get me started on the number of text messages I now receive asking me why I never call her/love her/text her. Boof, boof! Getting the guilt punches thrown in all directions these days, at broadband speed.
Now that she surfs the Net, my mom’s searches include, but are not limited to: downloading music, videos I’ve made, Facebook stalking and Googling her daughters (she wants to know that we’re relevant to others, too.)
Let me end off by saying that I didn’t get my first email address until I was 19-years old and in university. I remember, in 1998, the Oprah show flashing their new website address and thinking to myself, ‘phef, that’ll never take off’.
Ya.
So, your parents down with the 2.0?
my desk at work (I really don't have an intersting picture for this one)
sandyb dear, I found you. Fortunately I do NOT text. I do send emails with details in the subject line that say, “DO NOT OPEN” and then a message like “Call me!”
I LOVE stalking my daughters:it’s so reassuring and now I can add you to the list.
Very nice blog dear. NTKOG’s Mom
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, all the way from Not That Kind of Girl‘s blog, TKOG’s MOM!
Ooooo, I am so excited you stopped in to say hello! Honored, really. But, I have to ask, does ‘you know who’ know you came by?
Anyway.. thanks so much for reading. Hoped you had a chance to poke around a bit. I could really learn a thing or two from your funny writing that’s loaded with wit, sarcasm, humor, and just a hint of quirk in-a-helena-bottom-carter kind of
way. Seriously, hope to see ’round here again, Mom.
My mom still has yet to learn how to text. Thank goodness it will be ages before she starts asking about all these social network sites.
well it means one thing that i am having fun and i love you mom
Everyone, my MOM.
Yes mom, I love you, too.
My mom has an email, but that’s about it. She’s rarely uses that. She’s really not that interested in social media and stuff. I suppose she likes person-to-person contact better.
My mom just wants a piece of my action. She’s hilarious.
I wish my mom would facebook, or Twitter for that matter…
I actually think I’d be closer to her because then she would know a lot more about what’s going on in my life and vice versa.
This way when I go visit her on the weekends or when we talk on the phone, we talk, but it’s mostly about big things – and I think a close relationship is built on an accumulation of many small things – which Twitter and facebook are really good at.
Hey Grant,
You should totally set up an account for your moms. Make her day. It’s pretty trippy the first time your mom pops up on your facebook page with a “what are you doing?” message or an “LOL”..
Haha, awesome. My mom is the same. There’s a polish version of facebook and she livvves on it. She’ll randomly call me into the room and ask if I want to see a photo of so-and-so who I went to first grade with and don’t remember. I always ask her, “Are you friends with this person?” and she says, “No. I just look at their photos!” MY MOM IS THE CREEPY CROSS-OCEAN STALKER! What’s worse is that every single photo of us that she gets her hands on ends up on there, for all of my dad’s 893473847384 relatives view. So I’ll get on the phone with a cousin after not hearing from her in months and hear, “So, bad pimple that one time you were in the kitchen making a bagel, eh?” It’s. Awesome.
Oh snap. That’s too cute.
Hey, at least your relatives are attentive.
p.s. are you stalking me?
That is too cute. My parents are definitely not connected to the world at all. They do have a cellphone though, but I think it’ll end there. They get amazed when we do a google map on their house and show them the street view :)
Cell phone, eh? I dare you to show them how to text msg. Do it, and let me know.
ugggghhh everyone in my family loves to skype! While, I think Skype is a great tool…I like the advantages of the phone. Not having to literally look at eachother!
Skype! I. Would. Die.