Growing up, having an eccentric mom was always a delightful challenge. My mother, whom we’ll call Carol, has been known to make questionable choices, like introducing me to my first R-rated film at the tender age of three. I vividly remember sitting in the theater watching The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, surrounded by adults and feeling a mix of excitement and confusion. Those experiences shaped my childhood in ways I wouldn’t trade for anything.
However, Carol also had her quirks that were less endearing. She would exercise in high heels and suggest that if we were out of milk, we should drink soda in the morning since our dog loved milk and she wanted to keep him happy. When I left for college, she would leave lengthy messages on our answering machine filled with her thoughts on the latest philosophy she gleaned from her favorite talk show hosts. But nothing could have prepared me for the whirlwind that followed when Carol decided to embrace modern technology and join Facebook.
While my mom is incredibly intelligent—she’s a writer, a teacher, and an avid reader—she struggles to navigate the complexities of the Internet. The idea of her, at 71 and having spent most of her life as a stay-at-home mom, suddenly having a platform to share her unique opinions and insights was daunting. For someone from an era when phone calls were routed through operators, adapting to today’s tech can feel like a chaotic science experiment waiting to explode.
In 2017, while many will recall that year for the inauguration of Donald Trump, in my family, it will be remembered as the year Carol became the world’s first official Facebook super-user. Since joining, she has inundated her friends and family with approximately 4,376,932 posts of birds, rainbows, and adorable puppies. When my siblings and I staged our first intervention about her excessive sharing, Carol simply replied, “My followers would be so disappointed if I didn’t share what brings me joy.”
It was as if she had found a new calling. We could almost see the halo of significance surrounding her as she embraced her newfound audience, exclaiming, “They like me… they really like me.”
As if we weren’t already dealing with her posting random birthday wishes to acquaintances or mistakenly commenting on our friends’ pictures about how great their moms looked—when in fact, it was their sisters—she also loves to narrate every picture we post, often accompanied by a flurry of unrelated emojis.
For example, if I post a picture of my son drumming, you can bet she will comment with something like, “That’s my grandson, Liam, playing the drums. Liam is 9. He loves pizza, football, and once held a tarantula at camp (unicorn, rainbow, sea turtle, fire truck, sun).” What was meant to be a simple snapshot turns into an elaborate documentary.
Despite the chaos, she means well. She loves her family and wishes to share that love with the world. Regardless of whether you care or not, if you follow Carol, you’ve unwittingly signed up for her unfiltered stream of thoughts. My mom’s eccentricities have now spilled over from real life into the digital realm.
Yet, I have to commend my mom and all the “Carols” of her generation for their efforts to adapt to a world that seems to be changing at lightning speed. I’m grateful that she didn’t shy away from trying to keep pace with modern life. As she ages, and as my siblings and I grow more concerned about her safety, this allows her to engage with the world from the comfort of home, reducing our worries about her venturing out while keeping her mischief contained to the less hazardous realm of cyberspace.
So, Mom, keep it up! At the very least, you’re providing entertainment to the masses, one misplaced comment at a time.
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In summary, my mom’s journey into Facebook has been both chaotic and amusing. While she shares her life with the world, her antics also remind us to embrace our quirks and keep an open mind, regardless of age.
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