I get it. We don’t watch home movies on old movie projectors anymore. We have moved on from the parents and children crouched together around the radio listening to Jack Benny.
Heck, families don’t even watch TV together like we did when I was growing up.
My husband and I recently started watching the Ken Burn’s historical series, The Roosevelts. One night when we had it on, my eldest son came into the family room, looked at the TV and grimaced. “What are you watching?” he asked with distaste bordering on contempt.
“The Roosevelts. It is really interesting and very informative. Would you like to watch it with us?”
A disdainful roll of the eyes and a hasty retreat told us all we needed to know.
Parents don’t tell their children, “Why don’t you go outside and play?” to get them out of the house. We all sit staring at our smartphones, tablets or computers. Societal interaction has changed from when I was a kid. In more ways than one.
In my quest to become more up-to-date in the last few months, I have attempted to elicit information from my sons about social media. “I don’t understand. What is social media and how does it work?” I queried my oldest one day. He looked at me quizzically as if that was the stupidest question he had ever heard. The fact that he actually looked at me and was not fiddling with his cell phone was promising.
Excited that I may have gotten his attention, I jumped on this moment and tried to clarify what I was asking. “I mean, what do you do with it?”
His look of consternation told me that I was treading on thin ice and ought to take care. “What do you mean ‘do with it’?” he asked suspiciously.
“Aren’t you on Facebook?” I questioned knowing fully well that he was on it all the time. “What do you post?”
“I don’t post,” he said emphatically. “I use it to message.”
“Hold conversations?”
Exasperated, his head was starting to nod towards the phone in his hand.
Desperate, I changed the subject. “What about Twitter? Do you follow people? Who do you follow?”
No answer just a shrug of the shoulders. As if it was a secret that I shouldn’t be delving into.
“Instagram?” Nothing. Clutching at straws, I finally managed to find the right question. “If I want to use social media to let people know about my blog, how do I do it?”
A connection was made and his face brightened momentarily. “Take a picture of your DIY jewelry and label it with a link to your site.” Relief was felt by both parties. We could still communicate.
But my mind was hungry for knowledge. “But what about all the rest of it? Please explain tweeting to me. I don’t get it. I mean, what’s the purpose of it?”
That was it. Over-reaching with high expectations, I had gone too far. The look on his face said it all. “I can’t explain it to you, Mom.” After uttering that statement, my millennial got up and retreated to his room leaving my questions unanswered. Returning to his sanctuary to avoid further unanswerable queries and back into his comfort zone of interaction with his friends by using social media.
I suppose his actions spoke louder than words. In order to really understand something, you must do it.
