My Mom on Snapchat
My mom fits perfectly into the Basic White Girl category-
she loves any dog apart of the Doodle family (we have two), she fangirls over Bruno
Mars, and she loves social media.
When I and my friends created our first Facebooks in middle
school, she and all the other moms decided they also needed to see what this “social
media thing" was all about, and they followed behind us to create theirs. Once we got tired of the incessant comments and tags from the parents that had taken
over Facebook we jumped to Instagram, which my mom and many others have
followed as well. Snapchat still seems to be used predominantly by millennials
but, as of about a year ago, my mom became obsessed with it too.
When first hearing about Snapchat she scoffed at the idea, (didn’t
everyone when they first heard about the “disappearing pictures”??) but after
watching my sisters and I religiously use the app, her curiosity won, and she got
us to help her make an account. Now my mom is a true Snapchat queen. I was hesitant
at first to add her as a friend on Snap. Did I want her to view all my stories
or allow her access to send me pictures 24/7? But, it ended up being a
fantastic decision because my mom is unintentionally hilarious on Snapchat.
This has allowed her to blast pictures of the things
she loves.
***WARNING: YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE A LOT OF PICTURES OF MY TWO
DOGS***
It’s been very amusing for me to watch my mother learn the
basics of Snap and then see her enjoyment as discovers out new tricks and
filters. Now of course, she has moved a lot slower than millennials in this
process. Because she is a forty-something-year-old (she would drag me out of
Athens if I revealed her age) and didn’t grow up with the same technology as us,
she lags behind the millennials in the quickness and stealth of masterfully
using Snap, but I think she’s miles ahead of most adults her age. I will never
forget the day she finally figured out how to get the “mini cartoon of herself”
to appear in her snaps.
She has gone from scolding me to put my phone away at the
dinner table to not letting anybody touch the food until she has gotten the
perfect angle of it to post to her story. One of the best parts about it is
that her close friends have also fallen into the peer pressure and created
their own Snapchats so she has a small circle of her friends all snapchatting
each other like they are teenagers. And she and the other moms use Snapchat for the same
reasons we do:
She loves the filters:
She broadcasts her lit Saturday:
She requests solo shots taken of herself to go on other
people’s stories on special occasions:
She complains about the inconveniences of life:
She keeps everyone updated on the unveiling of new
attractions (like when the new Chick-fil-A opened in my hometown)
She posts pictures and of her favorite daughters:
She gets to show off fun vacations:
And, she can still embarrass me by posting awkward pictures
of me without my consent:
The more I think about my mom’s active engagement on Snapchat, the more sense to me it makes. She gets to easily connect with her
three daughters that don’t live at home with her anymore, and she is doing it
on a platform we use all the time. Snap makes it possible for her to show off the exciting things
that she’s doing in life and stay up-to-date with the people she loves. Which
is why every millennial loves it too.
I hope this blog post hasn’t given the impression that all
my mom does is sit around and play on her phone. She is a dedicated school
teacher, and an extremely intelligent, hardworking woman. But, if she is out
to dinner with her girlfriends she will
take the Snap-opportunity seriously by making everyone raise their drinks in
their air while taking a Snap video with the flash on in a dimly lit restaurant
as the waiter rolls his eyes.
All hail the queen!!!
Also, my mom and sister
got a tour of the Snapchat headquarters, and it was definitely one of the best
days of her life.
Your post had me dying laughing and also making me wish my mom had a Snapchat!! It's crazy to think about all the social media platforms that have been created while we've grown up. Since we're millennials, it's easier for us to understand and adopt them, but it's harder for parents! It's funny to see my parents slowing hopping on to the instagram train, maybe I should be introducing them to Snapchat instead!
ReplyDeleteLol this was hilarious! All of the posts of your mom doing all of the things our generation does with social media really emphasizes the impact of social media overall. I wish my mother would get on snapchat also. But, then again there would be a million questions like there was when she created her Facebook and Instagram. My sister, 28 years old, even struggles with Snapchat. Lol she is always texting me asking me about how to get filters and how to change the color of her text in her posts. She flipped out when she took a screenshot of someone's chat not knowing that the person would be able to see it. LOL it was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteGreat funny post! This just made my day. I can see that you and your mom are like very close friends. I really wish my mom had a snapchat or use any other social media plat form to have fun like your mom does! I can see that your mom really enjoys using snapchat and it is being a bridge between you and your mom. Having a same interest/hobby is the best way to be closer to somebody. I think your mom knows how to use snapchat better than I do haha. That last picture was the best, creative choice to end the blog post.
ReplyDeleteThis was great! My mom is on SC also but she only adds my siblings and I, and a few of our close friends so her stories also seem to directly mention one of us. It makes people our age laugh because were so fluent with platforms like this, but to our parents it's still a very new concept to have things like this at our disposal. You're mom honestly uses it pretty well compared to other parents I've seen. Super funny, she seems great!!
ReplyDeleteThis post is so relatable! I was cracking up because all of my older family that has SC is the exact same way. They are so ridiculous with the filters, take pictures of their animals nonstop, and somehow take the WORST photos of me ever. They are so affluent with these social media platforms, but love to use them so much. Your mom is definitely not alone with her hilarious usage of Snapchat.
ReplyDeleteVery entertaining article! My mom tried the Snapchat thing, and she never really stuck to it. I would like to think of her as a somewhat "hip" mom who is always in the know. Now that both of her kids have moved out, she seems to still not want to use Snapchat. I would think it would be a good way for her to reach out to her kids without having to call them all the time. Instead, she resorts to her basic iMessage app to send us a quick selfie of her with some celebrity she just met at the mall, or our dog's newest friend at the dog park. Not sure if this is a generation gap, or just a personal preference?
ReplyDeleteThis was so funny!! My mom isn't the best with technology and has no idea how to work snapchat, but she's VERY into Facebook and tagging me in every article she reads! I think my mom would love Snapchat personally, but it would take a crash-course in technology for her to start using it regularly. Great blog post, it was so relatable!!
ReplyDeleteThis is really funny!! My mom has a Snapchat account, but I'm pretty sure she forgot the login and has possibly deleted the app. She got it a while ago to "monitor" my brother, but I really think that she would get a kick out of it!! She and her friends hopped on the Instagram train pretty late in the game, so who knows how long it might be!
ReplyDeleteThis is hilarious! Neither one of my parents are very keen on how the new technology works, but after reading through your article, I really wish they did so I could get as much as a laugh as you do when you open her snapchats. It's a great way to stay connected to your parents when sometimes we're far away at college or just stubborn to never coming home. I would probably be more embarrassed then entertained with my parents, but those are parents, right? Anyway, thank you for the laugh and great article!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post!! The same thing happened with my mom and I when I decided to make a Snapchat account for myself. She too hated it at first and thought it was a dumb app that would either lose its hype or get shut down. Her curiosity won as well, but my reluctance to add her on Snapchat was minimal because I knew it would be pretty entertaining and it has been ever since. I'll receive pictures of our two dogs in addition to videos of her trying out every filter. She's recently discovered Bitmoji on Snapchat as well so most of her snaps contain a Bitmoji message as opposed to text. It's crazy to think about/realize that we, as their sons and daughters, are leading the industry in a way that requires us to teach them the ins and outs. I guess it's the least we can do after they've raised us thus far, especially when we still reap the benefit of sheer entertainment!
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome. I've never let my mom get a Snapchat or add me because she would probably ask me questions about everything I do. But this article makes me want to let her! It's funny to see how even though one wouldn't expect someone in her generation to love Snapchat, she does. I think its interesting how social media platforms like Snapchat have truly transformed how people today live their daily lives. From stopping to snap a pic to taking selfies with friends, I think it can be a beautiful way to form and treasure memories.
ReplyDelete