Is your family The Jetsons, The Simpsons or The Beverly Hillbillies?
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If you are a certain age, there are many things you take for granted. Flushing toilets. Electricity. Refridgeration. Running water. The telephone. For those under about 30, technology can be added to that list. For my children, for example, technology is as unremarkable as oxygen. It just….IS.
But different families have integrated technology into their lives in different ways. And in different amounts. For some, there is also a serious technology generation gap.
For a couple of weeks last year, I did some work with Optus as a spokesperson for their Family Communication Survey, the results of which divided most Australian households into three types.
See if you recognise yours……
1. The Jetsons (53 percent): all family members are tech-smart and regularly communicate internally and externally via SMS, email, mobile and social networking sites. Everyone in a Jetsons family has their own phone and computer and will often use them simultaneously or while watching TV. This describes our family pretty well although I’m not averse to asking my son to help me with tech things I can’t do like trouble-shooting my Bluetooth or operating our impossible TV remote controls.
2. The Simpsons (20 percent): These families are characterised by parents who are slightly techno-phobic but believe their children to be well-versed in all things tech. 55 per cent of Australian kids out-smart their parents in technology knowledge before they’re 13 year old so they’re probably right. Most Simpson family members will have a mobile and there will be a computer and broadband in the house but Mum and Dad will mostly just text, email and do the odd bit of online banking.
3. The Beverly Hillbillies (3 percent). This family pays all its bills via cheque or at the post office, has no clue what Facebook or Twitter are and considers a cordless phone to be high tech.
So which one best describes your family and your relationship with technology?
We’re totally The Jetsons. Except when it comes to the remote controls for the bloody TV when I’m not even The Beverly Hillbillies. I’m The Flintstones.
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So I bought my son a mobile phone for Christmas. last year.
mmm, odd as it is to say, we’re the simpsons though one of my older brothers is a technology geneous and studies computing in like 6th year uni on phd…my mum other than her ebay addiction is beyond the hillbillies… and my brother and i know more about our tv than our parents do about the whole internet
we’re cool.
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mmm, odd as it is to say, we’re the simpsons though one of my older brothers is a technology geneous and studies computing in like 6th year uni on phd…my mum other than her eba
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In my family, my son and I, are Sympson, my husband is all another story, he is a Hillybillies, he doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know about TV, remotes, mobiles ect ect, technology hasn’t catch up with him, he could not care less about it, happy to live with out it, love ooxx
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I’m probably Simpsons, my brother is Jetsons, & my parents are Marge & Homer. My mother has e-mail & loves using the internet to research things, but doesn’t have a mobile phone.
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Having Mr 14 and Miss 11 and Mr Judy, definately in the Jetsons most of the time. However the home entertainment system has moved beyond the realms of just TV and I can no longer manage to get picture and matching sound, let alone play a DVD (despite being shown everytime something changes!). It is accepted that I am the family techno nuff-nuff. Having said that I could not survive without the internet. Shopping/banking/email/work, love love love the convenience and flexibility.
The in-laws are very tech savvy with mobiles/laptops/Sype/email/internet for everything. My Mum, bless her, won’t even use an ATM & forget EFTPOS (she believes that she is keeping bank tellers in employment), has a mobile but only turns it on when it suits her (she has it for her convenience) and writes letters & posts them (once again believes Aust Post people need their jobs).
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I thought I was probably Marge from the Simpsons, but apparantly not as i can’t even work out how to comment on Frockwatch (no submit button).
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Yeah, I couldn’t either Frankie – same thing.
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Mia, I hear you on the tv remote! My mum is often close to throwing them across the room in frustration and prone to yelling, “argh! How do you make this work?!”
So I second your call for the Jetsons, tv remotes excepted.
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We are definitely Jetsons, though with some variation within the family. My parents (in their 80s) are probably Simpsons. When they got a new TV a few years ago, they were going to ask my son, then aged around 8, to tune it if they couldn’t, but they managed it on their own ….
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We are a mixture of all three at our place. We both have mobile phones and cordless phones at home, but also have an old fashioned round dial phone that is still used, because let’s face it, if the power ever goes off then we’re all stuffed!
We have a desktop and a laptop which are used daily for internet banking and news reading etc, but I also get the paper delivered a few days a week because I like reading the paper. My mobile phone has internet access etc but I refuse to use it.
I don’t have a problem programming the TV or DVD recorder or using the remotes controls for either, but Mr Lou has never been able to master either.
I shop on-line and at op shops…I send emails but love getting something in the mail, apart from bills.
I don’t want to be a slave to or too reliant on electrical/technical devices….oh, and I hate the thought of using an electronic device to read a book.
Like perm 23 said earlier…..I like the old school stuff…and would happily do without a lot of the latest technology. I have a friend who has a TomTom for the car to tell her how to get wherever she wants to go…but she’s been lost more times than I can remember. She also has an iphone and went gaga over it with all it could do, but spends so much time on it trying to work out how to use it I often wonder what the point of it is.
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Definitely a Simpsons family: my parents just use text and email, my older sister uses text, email, and occasionally Facebook, my three other siblings and myself are very tech savvy.
My fave part is, though, that my Grandma is more tech savvy than both my parents and constantly texting!
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Hehehe – my family is definitely the Simpsons! My dad can’t even turn the computer on, now his boss wants to give him a laptop!!!
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Beverly Hillbilly parents who still like letters in the mail and consequenly insist on PRINTING OUT EMAILS!!
Mixed with Simpson children. Funnily enough we actually bought a cordless phone for our parents a month ago!! its still a novelty to them. they sometimes still use the phone where the phone holder thingy is…
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We used to be the Jetsons but turned to be the Simpsons now. Hard to catch up all those technology!
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The Simpsons, although since my sister moved to Germany, my parents have discovered (finally) the wonders of broadband and skype. There is still hope!
(My brothers and I all sincerely hope my parents never get Facebook. There are a few too many embarrassing photos we’d have to untag if they ever did.)
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I want to be the Jetsons, yet we are the Simpsons. No, that’s not true, we are the Griswalds…..
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We are too! x
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We’re The Jetsons too.
http://www.princesseemma.com/
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We’re mostly Jetsons, with a little bit of Simpsons. Kids aren’t old enough to be in on it yet and no twittering.
Computers and TV? Texting and emailing as a major means of marital communication? Skyping to grandparents? Facebooking photos of grandkids for grandarents? Heck yes! So much.
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we are jetsons mixed with the osbournes …….yikes…
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I have just moved to a samll country town where NO ONE uses email and mobile phones are a bit of a novelty. Forget texting, twitter, facebook or any kind of social media. If I need to call someone, I have to call their home phone and leave a message on their answering machine, and wait for them to call back. It is true Hillbilly country out here!
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The Simpsons:
My Mum has a phone and so does Dad, but they just manage to text and Dad still types with one finger after 10 years.
I am pretty techy, as are my brothers and are constantly being asked how to send an email by Mum, even when she has been shown about a trillion times. I now a proud owner of an iPhone =D
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Jetsons: although, I the eldest would not be thrilled about being “Judy” and the “difficult” child might not like being the dog ;(
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I read this story recently which gave me food for serious thought.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1251995/Parents-ban-gadgets-home-Its-best-decision-claims-mother.html
Im sure it was hard work at the start, but I’m sure these kids are probably more interesting than imaginative than most others…
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Probably all true but having access to, and being comfortable with, modern technology doesn’t have to mean abandoning all the rest life has to offer.
My kids are pretty tech savvy, and have a collection of gadgets and hardware that is almost embarrassing, but they also have a time limit on all electronic entertainment. So they need to make choices; between the internet, their Wii, DSi and the TV. The only exception I make to the timed access to electronic devices rule is for music on cd and mp3 players. And for the weather on occasion.
Interestingly it’s the TV that is almost completely ignored these days, which pleases me as it’s the least interactive. And as I was informed this weekend that the trampoline is actually the Magic Portal to the Kingdom of Elements, and that I should be addressing my eldest (10yrs) as The Queen of Fire and Keeper of the Rainbow Key, I’m not too worried about their imaginations.
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[...] Is your family The Simpsons, The Jetsons or The Beverly … [...]
Both mine and my partners families are the Simpsons with both of our mothers going how to I put this music onto my ipod.
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Jetsons! My 93 year old Grandparents are on Facebook, my 8 year old sister emails and my mother blogs! Most impressive are my grandparents though, who Skype me weekly, have a mobile phone, digital camera and function completely online. Oh, and I wish they’d leave Facebook bc a girl needs her privacy!!!
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They are awesome, Dulcie!
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I’m so jealous! I wish my big sisters would email. Instead they think I’m the worst sister ever because I have to visit and don’t have time.
And yet….they text :s
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Definitely the Jetsons, so much so that I get headaches from all the technology! Internet, SatNav, iPhone, Foxtel IQ etc etc.
On the contrary, the in-laws are Beverly Hillbillies…although MIL recently discovered email and it’s hilarious to watch her demonstrate how “with it” she is (at 64) on her email account. She sends me an email, then rings up 10 minutes later to see if I got it. However, she is utterly terrified of internet banking and thinks anyone who uses it is an IDIOT and we’re all going to be cleaned out by a hacker. Oh, and facebook is full of pervs who want to sell the photos of my son in the swimming pool.
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Your MIL is way ahead of mine. She won’t even use an ATM. She lines up in the branch to get money out
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we are probably the jetsons. my husband has a blackberry, i have an iPhone, we have an iMac and a laptop, but i try to keep my kids away from anything but ABC kids. they are only 4, 3 and 1 so it is easy but i figure the longer we can avoid things like playstations the better off we are. the longer the kids spend playing in the garden and not in front of a box the better.
i think one day i might revert to beverley hillbillies, sometimes i get so annoyed when i just want to relax and my phone doesn’t stop ringing. i resent that everywhere i go i am contact-able, and that if i don’t answer my phone people ring every other number that i could possibly be on. i think we have gone too far and hope that there will be a revolt against this intrusion in our lives.
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My husband and I are Jetsons with everything wired (or wirelessed) for sound, but my kids moan and wail that they are Pebbles and BamBam because we wont give them their own phones or computers yet. (11 & 9 yrs). However with my daughter’s love of “critters” and my boy’s delightful daffinesss, I think they’re more Elly May and Jethro. Need to send them digging for some bubblin’ crude to pay the future phone bills.
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Me and my whole extended family are the Jetsons. My Dad, uncles and Grandfather all had iphone before I did.
My Grandparents are also on facebook They’re all pretty much exclusively Mac as well..
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Wow! Your grandparents sound very tech savvy. My dad doesn’t even know how to text and thinks Google is a type of lolly haha.
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What’s the amped up version of the Jetsons? our whole house is networked, our phones, TV, home security all run by servers etc. Mr cat is waaayyy into technology. Everything is Mac in our house.
Skype not working? No worries, he will just log into my computer from IRAQ, and “talk” that way.
Me? it took me 12 months to figure out how to watch a DVD on our Tv/ dvd system. I hate technology, but I admit, i use it everyday, and probably know more of the technical details then I ever wanted to.
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BTW… I have it on good authority that Iraq has faster broadband than us!
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Yep, I have been told that too, Zelicat!
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I know I’m going to get called pedantic & told to give Mia a break, but this is something that irks me. you refer to ‘technology’ as though it’s an apple product only invented in the last ten years!
Flushing toilets. Electricity. Refrigeration. Running water. The telephone.
these things ARE all technology. at least qualify by saying ‘recent technology’, or, better yet, be specific and tell us what kind of technology is unremarkable for your kids.
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Flushing toilets, electricity, refrigeration, running water, telephone – all unremarkable to my kids
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Oh Lordy, my gorgeous Mum and Dad are the Beverly Hillbillies all the way! Holy Crapperdappers! They are terrified of the TV remote; they still get up and down to change channels and turn the volume up and down. This is particularly challenging when the phone rings. They are both a bit deaf, so they have to turn the volume down on the tv before answering the phone. So my dad does the old man shuffle toward the tv while mum does the granny dash to the phone. She always gets there first and spends the first 10 seconds of her phone conversation yelling “Neil! Turn the TV down!”
Anyhoot, while I was staying with them last year, I secretly gave dad some lessons on the TV remote. He listened earnestly while I explained the mute button. A few nights later he took great delight in pressing his mute button and watching mum dash across the room to the phone…
Technology is great. But sometimes the simple life is good too…
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Love that image BB! And you are right about the simple life – it reminds me of my uncle, he met and fell in love with a cuban lady many years ago, it was very hard for him to carry on the relationship (ie; when he stayed in cuba, she wasn’t allowed in certain parts of the city/hotel etc). Anyway, he visited his future in-laws one time and saw them hand grinding the coffee beans. On his next trip he brought them back an electric coffee grinder and machine, thinking this would make things quicker and easier for them. It did but to the point where they then ended up having all this spare time on their hands. When you are living in a communist country, you can’t just wander down to the art gallery when you have a couple of hours, so it ended up driving them crazy. On his next trip back he noticed they were back to hand grinding/roasting.
sometimes technology aint all it cracked up to be!
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ACTinglikeamama – how did you change your picture?!
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The Simpsons.
My brother is studying towards computer programming and some electronics nerd degree, my two sisters (10 and 14) are the ultimate tech followers and literally rely on technology while other than at work I have a cheap phone that can’t even take pxts and refuse to get internet at home (reminds me of work).
My parents (45 and 46y.o) however are shocking (even worse than Marge when she first got the internet and kept clicking ‘refresh’ cause she wasn’t getting any emails)! They both take take so long composing txt msgs, don’t understand how to shorten conversations in txts and just recently my mum joined facebook and uses the chat as though she is writing an email. Oh and she regularly updates her status with the most mundane of sentences ‘Angela is about to make dinner’, ‘Angela is tired’ etc. Aww love her nonetheless though!
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We are the Jetsons without a doubt. Mr Bug is in IT so we are almost like the Jetsons on steroids at times. My 4 year old Little Bug has his own computer and he can make slideshows, play games and he loves nothing better than to use Skype. He has been known to Skype his father in the next room and once he came flying out of the bath at an alarming rate because he could hear his computer. He answered the Skype call from his grandparents in the nude which I think was a bit of a shock for them when he came up on the screen.
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Mon-Fri we’re the Jetsons, bound to our blackberries and laptops flitting off to work, appointments and after-school activities. Saturday we’re the Simpsons where the kids get on the playstation (husband and I dont really know how to work it properly), as we attempt to leave techno-world behind for the w’end. Sunday we’re the Beverley Hillbillies – no mobiles in use, no laptops and no playstation. We’re outdoors playing games or getting away from it all on a hike as a family.
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I never really want to be like the Jetsons. Because what do you do with all those freakin’ cords?
No really, I often think technology stifles real conversation. Overcomplicates life. Makes us so damn busy all the time. Do we need it all? It’s sold to us as a way to make life simple, but it just makes me feel like it’s so much more … complicated.
Do we really need to capture every special moment? Communicate to others about our every moment? Be busy every moment? Why can’t we just be in the moment?
Everyone’s wearing headphones these days or going out for lunch together while they constantly check text messages on their phone, or upload some kind of ‘app’ in the time when they used to sit there and ask the other person how their day was. I saw a lot of this on the weekend actually. It made me feel a little sad.
Technology-wise, I do love the radio. And the internet, of course. So it has it’s place. Oh and I guess my digital camera sometimes too. But I’d happily flush my mobile down the loo most of the time. The mere thought of getting an iphone makes me break out in a rash … why are apps so exciting? I’d rather read a newspaper.
I’m old school and proud. Call me back to basics lady. I’m a frequent op shopper because I love the idea of not creating more stuff to fill the planet with.
And having ranted about ALL of that … here I am commenting on a blog at work looking at Oscars pictures online … Hmmmm. I’m blaming procrastination.
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Jetsons all the way – house full of computers, mobile phones, iphones, ipods… we have 20Gig of broadband allowance a month and usually go to the limit.
One of my fav things last year was watching Eurovision with my daughter. We both had our laptops logged into the SBS Eurovision chat and were commenting on songs, costumes, the air machine… You need to be clever, quick and witty to be approved by the moderator and we were stoked when we were both seeing our comments on our computers.
So daggy and cool at the same time
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I am now debating whether to be lazy and email my son to tell him to get off his PS3 and do some home work – or just walk up the stairs? Stair I think – we do have a very small house…
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We are renovating and I find it easier to ring my builder than to find him…. I’m with you. Actually now that I think of it, I sometimes text my kids because then they will actually take notice!! We are all with ’3′ so at least it’s free.
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Jetsons – broadband, Foxtel IQ, Mobiles, iphones, blackberries, every permeation of the ipod- though for some reason we have drawn the line at Ninetendo DS. My husband thinks those portable games are the work of the Devil.
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Definately Jetsons.
Broadband, tv, mobiles etc.
I love gaming, and my 5 yr old loves it too. Master 2 loves to watch (and press the turn off button on the computer at the most annoying time for Master 5).
My 5 yr old can turn on the computer, type in my password to log into Windows, and then choose his games to play. A friend sent me a message on messenger the other day. Master 5 looked at the screen, and came to get me saying “Mummy, the computer says Sally (my friend’s name) wants to talk to you.” lol
At the moment I know more than my kids, but as they get older I’m sure they’ll pass me.
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My husband and I are the Jetsons and so are his sisters, mum, dad, etc. My brother and sister and their families are The Simpsons and my mum and dad are the Beverley Hillbillies.
So in my family, we are all three. My brother thinks it is amazing that if i am talking to him on the phone and he asks me a question, I’ll google it and answer him straight away. I should mention that I am only 6 years young than my brother and 2 years younger than my sister, but that are both technologically challenged!
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Yesterday Lottie Jnr, 3 and 1/4, was having her first attempt at riding her new scooter. She had to continually stop to check her GPS was sending her in the right direction. She gets frustrated if her Mickey games take too long to download. ‘Mummy, it’s STILL loading!’
So, Jetsons.
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We’d be between the Simpsons and the Jetsons in terms of technology. But other than that, I reckon we’re more like the Griswalds….
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Oh, I just wrote that! I didn’t read all of the posts before I blogged. We ARE SO the Griswalds… Mum, Dad, three shrieking kids… way too much talk..
Husband desperate to do the Aussie drive, yet I could not image the comentary from the back seat……
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jetsons. my 2.5 year old asked me to downlead a Dora app to my iphone last nigt hhhmmmmmmmmm
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Definitely the Jetsons. Utterly technology dependent, and all gadget whores. And yes the kids are as tech savvy as Mr Miz and I. My five year old uses Pages (mac version of MS Word/Publisher) to make pictures, converts them to PDFs and emails them to his grandparents.
Then he rings them to explain how to open the document.
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OMG!
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Love it!
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There’s actually a ‘mail as pdf’ function as part of the print menu for Mac programs, so it’s not as difficult as it sounds. I don’t think my father takes much consolation from that though, he still has to ask my mum to set the alarm clock for him.
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In the sense that I now class myself, fiance and our dog as my family we are The Jetsons. We each have our own mobile, seperate laptops and a desktop computer, we browse the net as we watch TV/I browse the net while watching stuff on the net, etc…
And, no, Minnie (dog) does not have her own phone but she is quite cheeky you never know what she gets up to while we’re not home. And she does email her Aunty…and by email I meant stepping all over any keyboard in her vicinity
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