We older generations have to protect ourselves from the younger generation.
Or – protect ourselves from their phones, to be more specific.
I first learned that when my daughter was a pre-teen. Like all the other girls her age at the time, she had opened a Tik Tok account (without my approval, of course) and she and her little friends were posting videos of themselves dancing.
Poor thing. I’m sure she expected compliments and support when she showed me one of her videos, but that didn’t go the way she had planned.
I was appalled, and instead of applause, she was showered in lectures and warnings about the internet.
After the initial outburst slowed down, something else caught my attention: The background. She had taken this video in my bedroom, which I like to think of as my own private little place in the world. She had taken that video in the living room where a pile of laundry was on the couch, waiting to be folded, and papers and coffee cups were scattered about in a mess on the coffee table. The whole world would see our messes!
Thank goodness Tik Tok no longer remains a problem, but worrying about what the pictures show always will be. We have a strict rule now that pictures for whatever purpose can only be taken in a tidy area of the house.
But …
But one day I was doing something silly – singing along to the radio and dancing around as I was sweeping, and out of the corner of my eye I caught a quick movement and heard a giggle.
I swerved and lunged. She ducked away laughing. I stretched around for her phone, and she held it away from me.
I gave her The Look, and she handed it over. She had snuck a video of me singing and dancing.
The heavens opened up and great flames of fury accompanied the Wrath of Mother: There will be no secret videos, ever, and no making fun of anyone, especially not a parent, done online or in any other manner electronically. (I can take it face to face, no problem, but I’ve always felt sorry for those poor mothers and grandmothers and fathers and grandfathers who are the brunt of jokes running rampant over the internet.)
There was no question left that if any secret video or photo were taken, and certainly if anything unauthorized would be shared, that phone would end up in the bottom of the ocean, never to be replaced.
You’ve gotta hit ’em where it hurts.
