That’s it. It has happened. The world has turned the other way. My parents have become tech junkies.
My parents are visiting me at the moment and they’re staying at my place. You would think we would spend time catching up or discussing about life and stuff. It has been almost a year since I have last seen them, and they come from really far away. But no. As soon as my father arrived at my place, he sat at my desk and said “What is the password?” I wouldn’t tell. So he logged himself into the guest account, and off he went, he threw himself into the other dimension, and bye bye. At the same moment, my mom noticed that I was a little sick, and asked “Hey, where is your other computer? Let me check how to cure your night cough.” I wouldn’t give her, I kept telling her I was fine. But she insisted “Give me the Internet!” So I just gave her. And off she went, like a dragonfly in the bit system.
So there I was, left in the middle of the living room with no computer and no one else to talk to but my own mind. Great. I was observing them both sucked into their screen. What had happened to them in just a year? Right! They got the unlimited Internet at home last year, with a computer for each one. That’s what happened. Finally I had to break it with a “Err.. so what should we do now?” No sign of life. Just a strange wave of synchronized shrugs. Then, still glued to her screen, my mom would sometimes send me sparks of thoughts like “I know”, “Here” … “They say you could cure your cough”..”with hmm”… “Yeah, by putting a big onion under your bed !!!” – “What.” – “yeah, yeah that’s what the Internet says. Put a big onion under your bed, and you won’t be coughing anymore at night ! Tell me you’re gonna do this.” – “Sorry mom, I don’t have an onion.” And for the next hour she kept telling me about this girl on the Internet who put an onion under her bed and stopped coughing at night. I finally told her I could use my cough syrup instead that would also work. “Yes, but it’s too bad you don’t have an onion too”. Ahh the Internet, what a marvel, right?
My mom is not really a tech junkie though, she is rather an information junkie. As soon as I told her about my syrup she had to read the syrup instructions and actually correctly pointed out that I was not using it right. By respecting the fix she suggested I slept better 🙂 Once, I scared her off by telling her the yogurt she was about to eat was expired, then said I was joking but she wouldn’t trust me anymore and said “No, no, no, now I have to read the date myself to be sure” – “Come on mom I was just joking” – “No, no, no, no. I have to check. I have to get my glasses now. Let me read the date.” Another time she complained that being too much informed was bad because she wouldn’t do normal stuff anymore. Like using the microwave. She read that the microwaves destroy the food’s nutrient so she refuses to use the microwave since then, even if she agrees it’s really practical. Information junkie.
And my father, he’s more of a media junkie, video, music, he just eats it all. He was really excited this morning to tell me the story of a zebra captured by a crocodile that dragged it into the river but then a hippo came to scare off the crocodile and saved the zebra !!! He even mimed the limping zebra and concluded his impression by “Anyway I know it’s all fake, how can this be true ?! it’s just montage !”…hmmm.. I wonder where that comes from.
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So the Internet wave has also lifted them. It’s a bit weird. Now sometimes when I ask my mom something, she immediately answers “Have you looked it up on Google?” – “Hmm..no. :-/” I’m so shameless !
