Now my dear old dad is more active online than I am

The concept of generation gap was reinforced time and again when I was growing up and I’m always surprised when my parents embrace ideas outside the assumed norm. That’s why my father’s interest in social media was a bit of a cultural shock.

Lately, an unexpected person has become an active member within my circle of friends. He is a 64-year-old, highly energetic man whom I take after in many ways. That isn’t to say my dad tags along to all my social gatherings, but he sure has been an attentive friend, participating in many of my virtual gatherings. I clearly remember the amusement and trepidation I felt when he sent me a friend request on Facebook a year ago (to my horror, my sister and I were the first two people he tried to befriend).

Having heard scary stories of parents embarrassing their children online, I thought hard before clicking the confirm button. What if he disapproved of my opinionated posts? Or my friends? Then it occurred to me that maybe wanting to be on his daughter’s friends list was an attempt to turn back time and feel like one of the young crowd for a while. I clicked confirm, sure that he would soon forget all about his Facebook account because of his hectic daily routine.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Soon, dad had a ­decent-sized friends list, having tracked down old pals and acquaintances from his school and university days, just like we did when the social networking site opened up connectivity back in 2004.

The “generation gap” concept was reinforced time and again as I grew up, whether through interaction with grandparents and older relatives or through television shows that promoted old stereotypes (this is especially true of Indian society). Perhaps that’s why I’m always surprised when my parents embrace ideas outside the assumed norm.

And so – and I admit this rather ashamedly – my father’s interest in technological advancements and his active presence on social media came as quite a shock at first. He is exactly like an excited child with a new toy when it comes to Facebook because of the constant exposure to a non-stop flow of information and news from friends and family – which in the old days relied on snail mail. Then he went one step further – he got himself a data package on his smartphone because “that’s what everyone has now”.

And so, my dad is more active online than I am. He shares interesting articles, comments on posts from friends and “likes” almost everything I share on my feed (this probably is just a show of support, lest my posts are ignored by others).

Of late, he has gotten into memes, cracking up at all the forwarded posts and instantly reposting them. I also receive pick-me-up texts every morning on WhatsApp, which I imagine he also shares with the several groups he has created for his buddies and relatives (with whom I suspect he would otherwise not stay in touch regularly).

And just in case I haven’t checked my Twitter or Facebook feed, he makes sure I’m kept updated by bringing the discussion to the dinner table every night, so our conversations are now always about news and interesting Facebook posts instead of our respective work days.

Funnily enough, I’ve begun to find this utterly endearing. Just as long as he doesn’t start saying stuff like “Yo” and “Cool”. I’m not ready for that yet.”