I was lying in bed one day perusing Twitter, looking at some memes, retweeting a few quotes, when all of the sudden I receive a notification: @parentsnamehere has followed you. This is when you stare blankly at your phone. To the average young adult, social media is a place to escape some of the ways of your life, but there comes a time where the generation before us starts to catch up with our ways, and this means that our parents join social media. There are certain stages you go through as a millennial realizing that your parents have joined the cyber world. If you are anything like me, here are a few emotional trips you go through when your parent decides to join social media.
1. Shock
You think to yourself “Is this real life?’ Could it be that the people who brought you into this world suddenly had a change of heart about social media? You search through your notifications trying to find some sense into what is happening to the world.
2. Denial
You try to tell yourself that this isn't happening. There is no way your parents could finally learn the ways of the cyber world. You sit refreshing your notifications page hoping that it will go away. You swipe down and down until you're left with an accepted friend request.
3. Fear
So you tell yourself, "So what?" and you go back to doing your daily routine. But then it hits you. You like something with a curse word in it from 127 days ago. You bolt to your phone and search rapidly through posts that you may have liked or shared that you know your parents would not approve of.
4. Bargaining
You then try to come up with different ways you can persuade your parents to get rid of it. At first, they think you are helpful, but then they catch on to your schemes and then you know that you have failed them as a child.You are then forced to answer their questions on how to post on "The Facebook" or "The Twitter."
5. Acceptance
Finally, you realize that there is nothing you can do. You are to surrender to the powers of social media. But eventually, you learn to live with it. What is the worst thing that could happen? It's all fun and games until they post an embarrassing photo of you from the first grade, but they are your parents and you love them anyways, no matter how many times they ask you, "What is a tweet?"
All a parent wants to do is be a part of our lives, so what if that means they follow you on Instagram and Twitter? You have to look on the bright side of situations, now you get to send them the best memes the internet has to offer.
