Dani's Dirt

I hear people say, “I can’t have a Facebook, or Twitter, that’s for the younger generation. I’m too old for those kind of things.”

To which I reply, “My great-grandpa is a World War II veteran, and has Facebook.” (and he’s a busy little bee on it.)

That’ll usually stop all the “can’t” nonsense, because it’s not a matter of “can’t” it’s a matter of “won’t.” Which is totally cool, there are many days I wish I had never drank the social media Kool-Aid.

My parents are were prime examples of this. Growing up, I didn’t have a cell phone till I was 16, which I had to share with my little sister (Oh, the humanity). After some intense lobbying, and some “I’ll pay for it, I swear!” I finally was able to add a “200 texts per month” plan, at the age of 18. And Internet connection at mom and dad’s? Well you could kiss that dream goodbye.

Keep in mind, I’m in my early 20-somethings, and my parents are still spring chickens… so compared to everyone else technology-wise, we were a good 5-10 years behind. In college, my professors actually thought I was lying when I’d say, “I can’t check my email over break, we don’t have internet.”

Disclaimer: Not complaining and/or whining. I’m extremely grateful this is how I was raised. My parents are fantastic to the 10th power.

So you can imagine my confusion within the last couple of years as they got DVR and began texting. They both joined Facebook. Mom got an iPhone, became a frequent FarmVille player, joined Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Vine. And the most shocking of all… actually started operating the DVD player by herself.

Dad, on the other hand, just within the past month joined the smartphone world. Created an Instagram account …learned how to ‘like’ photos on Instagram. Setup a Twitter – followed the entire Duck Dynasty cast – and was visibly disappointed when his attempt to download Vine failed, due to it not being a Droid recognized app.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY PARENTS!?!?!

There is only one logical explanation for all this, my parents have in fact been abducted by aliens.

Can y’all relate to this? Are your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents an active part of your social media life? I want to hear about it.

Editors note: I give it an hour after publishing this before my mom, with her more up-to-date iPhone than either of her daughters will start texting Alien themed Emoji’s to me. Emoji’s! My mom! Aye-yi-yi.