Just Ask Mimi…or Alexa
I was cleaning up (more like looking for something that I had misplaced) around the house the other day and I came across a photo of my grandmother when she was young. The photo was from the 1920s, and as I looked at it, I thought to myself, “Mimi, I wonder what you would think about all of this technology we have today.” Her daughter, MY mother, is NOT technologically inclined, so I can only imagine what my grandmother would say about some of the things we do today, like take pictures of food that we’ve ordered at a restaurant or watch movies on a tablet. The fact that we stare at a telephone for hours and can now describe every single detail of our lives, publicly, on a computer that fits inside a pocket would probably amaze her. I’m not sure what she’d make of me asking Alexa, the in-home digital assistant, if she likes the shirt I’m wearing.
When we were very young, my sister and I would visit my grandmother, and she would take us to lunch, then to see the latest Disney movie like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Mary Poppins. It was a big treat and always ended with a trip to the local dime store where we would be given $5 to spend on whatever we wanted! Spending a whole day with your grandmother is probably not as easy these days with all of the social media technology competing for kids’ attention. I’m sure my grandmother would have loved having a smart phone back in 1971 to be able to FaceTime her grandkids and be able to watch something other than Gunsmoke on the one television in the house. And she would definitely get a kick out of Alexa.
Speaking of Alexa, I’m sure some of you received the Amazon Echo as a Christmas present. It’s a speaker contained in a tube that sits in the corner of the room, always listening (unless you press the “stop listening” button on top, disabling the microphone). When you say “Alexa,” it wakes up and you can ask it questions, tell it to order things from Amazon, to play music, or whatever.
Here are some of the odd things I’ve learned you can do with Echo: learn facts about cats when you are sitting alone and bored; ask whether it’s Happy Hour, and always be met with a resounding “YES!” You can also have Alexa determine who’s actually correct when you’re arguing with someone. Alexa even has a Grandmother Says app where you can ask a grandmother for advice when you need life help. Getting some grandmotherly advice is never a bad thing!
“Alexa, can you spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?” I know Mimi could!
