Dad was a baby boomer born in 1946. At age 18, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and served a 13-month term in Vietnam. Dad was very proud of his “service to his country.” He wore the hats and pins that immediately identified him as a proud veteran and would often suggest that debit cards and the internet were a means of social control. Even with all his suspicions he never quite appreciated how technology and information could be weaponized against him.
In 2019, my father joined the 21st century and purchased a smartphone. He called me on his new device and said, “Now, do I have to go to the library and checkout a Facebook?” A follow-up question was, “What’s an app?” Needless to say, he was in over his head, but he thought he was entering a new age and would brag about his phone and that he learned to text.
My dad was the type who visited a local coffee shop where he’d complain about the newer generation and there being too many lawyers and the normal rantings of retired people in small-town America.
Some of the waitresses thought it would be funny to install a sassy silver singles app on his phone where he began to get requests to “friend” him. He had no idea why these “old crazy women” were calling him.
