Since I have been away at Kenyon, I have stayed in contact with my parents, sending them a text now and then and Skyping them once a week, but, for my mom especially, it isn’t enough. This is the first time I’ve ever lived away from home, and because of this, anytime I’m tagged in a photo or post an update on Facebook, she drinks it up. It’s understandable, I used to see her every day, and now she only gets to see me once a week on Skype and through the occasional Facebook post.
Besides Facebook, my parents have never really cared for social media. For the most part, they see it as something that allows my generation to be antisocial when faced with in-person situations. To them, it consumes all of our free time and allows for strangers to find us online and attack us. They are not wrong; many people do allow social media to take over their lives, and they can get themselves into poor situations, but in my experience, this has not been the case. For me, social media allows me to remain in contact with my friends, old and new. It allows me to catch up on how my high school friends are doing in college, or what my Kenyon friends have been up to during winter break. And, once I explained this aspect of social media to my parents, they were in.
My dad has, in the past, often made fun of Snapchat, claiming that sending a picture that only lasts a few seconds is just as effective as printing out a piece of paper, crumpling it, and throwing it away. My mom has watched me take selfie after selfie, asking, “Jenny, what are you doing? Who are you talking to?” Both of them, based on questions they have asked, had no real knowledge of how Snapchat, or any of the newer social media apps, works.
So, over winter break, I found a solution to both problems: I taught my parents how to use Snapchat. It was tough at first: my dad didn’t understand screenshots while my mom couldn’t figure out how to get the filters to work. But I think they’re finally starting to get the hang of it. Now, not only do my parents have another way to stay in contact with me while I’m at school, but, I am also happy to say that my parents now understand the basics of Snapchat. It will probably be a while until my dad figures out how to face swap or my mom discovers how to find the best lighting for her selfies, but, for now, I can see a Snapchat notification on my phone screen and know that a picture of my cats (what my dad calls “snap-cats”) or my mom’s smiling face is waiting for me.
My parents did not grow up in a world with social media. They didn’t even grow up with cell phones. But now that those little handheld computers and the apps they contain have a strong hold on my generation’s lives, I’m glad that I’ve had a chance to share the knowledge that seems so intrinsic to me with my parents. And I look forward to more “snap-cats” in the coming semester.
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Image credits: Mark Nagel, Stacy Nagel, Snapchat