This is my mother Mary. She lives in Japan, and for the most part, she has a pretty normal active mom life–goes to work, cooks dinner, throws parties, plays golf. But when it comes to gadget usage, she has some pretty quirky habits and, like most Tokyo-ites, has assimilated them seamlessly into her daily life (even though she still can’t figure out how to plug a PlayStation into a TV). Keep reading to learn about her blingy new cell phone, how she met a kill screen in Brain Age, and how she hopes technology will solve her biggest burden.
Me: Where did you get your new cell phone?
Mom: It’s actually a big sticker that I just cut out and stuck onto my old cell phone. I bought it at Daiei* in Kobe a few months ago. The model number? I don’t know, I’m looking at it with binoculars but I can’t see. Oh, it’s a Sony Ericsson. The Au KDDI W62S. I think the color is pretty.
Me: Tell me about that video game you were addicted to.
Mom: It’s just a stupid side game in Brain Age. There’s a pair of squares or circles, I forgot which. They’re different colors, and whenever there are four together they disappear. Once they all disappear, new ones come out. But it’s gone already. If you it play too much it disappears.
Me: What do you mean it disappears?
Mom: It says your memory is full so you can’t play this game anymore.
Me: How many hours did you play it for?
Mom: 40 minutes every day just to relax, before going to bed. I think it’s like how people who smoke have a cigarette. But now that it disappeared, I just watch TV. That game gave me shoulder pains and bad eyesight, though, so I guess it wasn’t actually that relaxing. Now I stretch while I watch TV–I think that’s better for me.
Me: What’s your favorite game on the Wii?
Mom: I only play the Wii when your brother comes over. My favorite game is Mingorufu.** I haven’t played it for years because I don’t know how to set it up with the new TV, but I liked it because it gave me a good sense of strategy in real life golf.
Me: What do you think of your car GPS?
Mom: I use it when I go play golf, even if I know how to get there. Sometimes it’s really stupid and I know the streets better than the machine. Your dad and I are always saying to the GPS, “You’re so stupid. You don’t even know the back roads.”
Me: What’s one gadget you wish you had but don’t own yet?
Mom: I wish I had a machine that would sort all my pictures of you and your brother in chronological order just by looking at them and then put them in albums or on the Internet. Because as you know, I’m reorganizing all my pictures, and it’s a big pain. If someone invents it, will you please call me right away?
*the Japanese equivalent of Walmart
**Japanese name for Hot Shots Golf, which she has for PS3.
How does she find the UI on the furry gadget on the right?
Won’t Picasa sort pictures into albums by date and put them on the internet? My mom asked for her jetpack when I showed her Picasa.
@ENOCHREWT
Date of file creation which probably doesn’t match the date the photo was taken if you have a bunch of photos taken on film and scan decades later. I don’t think picassa can look at photos of Lisa and judge that she’s 7 in this one so it comes after this other one where she’s 3.
I love this interview! very fun. it’s interesting to hear about different generational interactions with gadgets. my parents and relatives, who are baby boomers, are all really tech savvy, but when young people think of that generation they seem to have an outdated view of them (like they don’t know how to use a computer, etc.). interesting
Your Mom’s cool (and very pretty).
“That game gave me shoulder pains and bad eyesight.”
My mother tells me something similar gave me the same symptoms.
Picassa.
@1 beat me to it. Anyway, I like how the age bracket for people who enjoy technology widens to include people from younger and older generations.
You are a great writer Lisa! And your mom is awesome. GPS systems are probably the most depressed gadgets out there, always getting ridiculed.
You’re mom is actually cool. I wish my mom loves gadgets too aside from her baking utensils XD. I don’t think that your mom is that addicted to games coz she was able to give up on it w/o hesitations. I’ve read tons of articles stating all the bad effects of video games but I’ve read an interesting article: http://www.articlerich.com/Article/WOW-GOLD-SAVES-THE-DAY–How-RMT-helped-a-Starving-Student/545008 and it changed my view on video games. Now it made me think, have you already introduced World of Warcraft to your mom as well?
Techie huh? Awesome! She just reminds me of my mom who’s more advanced than me when it comes to tech stuff. She sometimes join me farming wow gold, she’s actually on the brink of getting addicted. lol