Its ok, but its more like blog, than a feature
Parents and Smartphones
Atoofa Siddiqui
2k18/MC/36
Feature
Few days
ago, I explored my phone’s gallery in search of my dad’s picture, but I did not
find one. Like a nature of this young generation to save everyone’s contact
numbers with their respective pictures, I also wanted to save my dad’s contact
with his photo. Having not a single picture of him made me asking for it. He
replied,” Beta, I will send you after capturing one.”
After some
fifteen minutes, all of sudden my phone beeped and a notification of receiving
a picture from dad popped up on the screen. As I opened it, I immediately got
scared by his features captured so closely. Those widen smiley teeth reminded
me a Colgate advertisement. I asked my father,” Baba, what is this?” and he
replied,” Beta, a selfie.” I laughed at his response and did not say a word
after. But his reaction disturbed me and compelled me to think that what made
my father sad? My question or laughter?
To know the
reasons, I decided to interview my friend’s mother, Ishrat aunty. In response
to my question that what make parents to use new advancements, she told me that
we, parents of present age, are curious to know the use of new smartphone’s
features. Examining our children in this technological age where every day has
some new feature or technology to learn, we also want to try things in the same
way our children do. But, the result is sometimes funny and sometimes shameful
too.
She shared
her experience of getting embarrassed in front of her daughter’s friend. She
said I learned the use of Snap chat somehow and knew how to take pictures and
put that on stories. Once, while viewing the stories, I saw a picture of my
daughter’s friend, Aqsa, captured so beautifully. Inspired by her dress, I took
a screenshot of it. In the very next moment, I received her text,” Aunty, why
did you screenshot my picture?” Her question shocked me that how she came to
know this. Feeling embarrassed, I had to reply her sorry and delete her
picture.
After that I
visited my uncle, named Shahid, who is so aware of modern mobile phone
features. He gave me some other reasons behind parents’ use of smartphones that
in present age, when smartphones are so common, parents want to know what their
children’s activities on social applications are. Running these applications,
to maintain a check and balance, needs a command over them. That is the reason
why they try the use of latest features of social applications in cell phones.
Adding to
the reasons, he further explained me the psyche of today’s parents. He said
some parents find it amusing to use these advance and multiple dimensions of
cell phones. Successfully capturing selfies, using Snap chat filters, making
boomerangs, getting more likes and comments on their statuses, winning games etc.
add little joyments in their busy lives.
But,
parents’ use of smartphones’ features seem funny and embarrassing to their
children, oftenly. In present time, one can find and see a lot of YouTube
videos, clips and memes, making fun of parents’ use of screening.
It’s quite discouraging thing to see children
making fun of their parents for learning the smartphones’ use. We all try new
things in our lives and we all experience shame and embarrassment in start. But
it does not mean to degrade the ones, who tried, every time. We should respect
their trials and help them in their learning process, so that they can get some
confidence instead of feeling demoralized. Because, according to Ralph Waldo
Emerson,” Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an
experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
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