Unplugged

Five minutes ago, my son was relaxing like a king. Lounging away in baggy shorts and a scruffy t-shirt, he propped his legs up on the coffee table.  In the past three hours, he merely moved two muscles – his eyes and a finger.  Continuously swiping along his iPhone, his attention flashed between Instagram and Money Heist streaming on TV.

Like a silkworm in its cocoon, my 16-year old is deeply immersed in his cosmos of screens.  Its planets are Youtube, Minecraft, Instagram, Netflix, and Fortnite.

Abruptly, this universe turned dark – literally.

First, his phone battery died.  He would just charge it, he thought.

This was the ubiquitous solution to every quandary in his world, until today. Today, a power outage turned every screen black.  Now what?

2 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, he was unplugged from podcasts, friends, games, and entertainment.  Restless and squirmy, his gaze wandered aimlessly looking for a home.

“You want podcasts?,” I asked.  I handed him a boombox.  “Listen to the radio.”

He gawked at the black machine, baffled that an apparatus larger than his computer was supposed to play a simple podcast.  With multiple dials, oversized knobs, and over 20 buttons, there were enough controls to communicate with NASA.  After 10 minutes of heedlessly turning a knob, yearning for Alexa, he gave up.

Next I gave him a newspaper.  “Your News Feed for today.”

His fingers fumbled as he hysterically tried navigating to the sports section.  His bungling attempt to fold the paper resulted in a crumbled mess with pages strewn around.

Drowning in this disconnected world, he demanded the number of the electricity company.

A thump startled him as I dropped the Yellow Pages before him.  Bewildered by its thickness, he flipped it open and stared absently.  He wished Siri could help him find the number in this colossal phone book.  Without making it to section “E”, he slammed the book shut and shambled off to bed.

Napping – all he could manage without electricity.

Amused and ashamed, I opened the breaker box, flipped a switch, and watched The Crown.