If it's not blue, she's not listening

March 19, 2018 12:17 PM

A cartoon of a dad and a grandma wrestling with Amazon Alexa and then the reaction video from the family members involved.
posted by greenhornet (36 comments total)

what a great Dr. Katz quality.

That guy needs to be nicer to his mama, though!
posted by Countess Elena at 12:48 PM on March 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

This is pretty close to my setting Alexa up for my parents. Even down to the republicanisms.
posted by greermahoney at 1:05 PM on March 19, 2018

I could have been this guy last weekend, trying to get my MIL to ask Google Home a question. I wish I had recorded it. No matter how many times I told her she had to start any interaction with, "Hey Google" or "OK Google", she would just go ahead and say something, and then wonder why nothing happened. It started out as cute, then I very quickly became filled with something akin to rage every time I heard, "Well, what time is it now?" or "What is the weather, Google???"

Me: No, you have to start off by saying, "Ok, Google". That's how you activate it. Just say, "Ok Google" and then ask it to tell you a joke, or what time it is, or ask it what the weather is like.

Her: "Oh ok. Hey, what time is it, Google? Okay? Okay?"

G A H H H H H H
posted by the webmistress at 1:12 PM on March 19, 2018 [34 favorites]

No matter how many times I told her she had to start any interaction with, "Hey Google" or "OK Google", she would just go ahead and say something, and then wonder why nothing happened.

My parents are totally the opposite. They immediately caught on to having to preface their Alexa requests with "Alexa", but they can't shake the habit of thanking Alexa when she's done. (Probably becuase they get a kick out of the fact that Alexa sometimes answers when they do.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:19 PM on March 19, 2018 [5 favorites]

They'd do really well in Event[0], I think.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:23 PM on March 19, 2018

that was cute until the very end with the whole president thing and i just noped out of even watching the reaction video
posted by numaner at 1:29 PM on March 19, 2018 [14 favorites]

I kind of wanted to nope out instantly because the dad is such an extreme raging asshole?
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:33 PM on March 19, 2018 [20 favorites]

My parents are totally the opposite. They immediately caught on to having to preface their Alexa requests with "Alexa", but they can't shake the habit of thanking Alexa when she's done.

"Thank you" should be a command on those things to immediately stop listening or whatever. When I talk to google on my phone, the screen comes on. After it answers my question, "thank you" should turn the screen off. So I'm okay with that behavior on the part of your parents.
posted by nushustu at 1:38 PM on March 19, 2018 [22 favorites]

I just think it's cute that they insist on thanking Alexa, but "Thank you" as a shut off signal is actually a really good idea.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:43 PM on March 19, 2018 [9 favorites]

+1 for the "Thank you" shut off feature.

And yes, @soren_lorensen, the dad does seem to have some anger issues. While the video is funny, I'm not sure I could live in a house with that much tension and agro.
posted by greenhornet at 1:54 PM on March 19, 2018 [5 favorites]

If you take away the endearing accents this is my family.
posted by phunniemee at 2:02 PM on March 19, 2018

Plus, thanking alexa et al has the added benefit of letting our future robot overlords look back and see that we were polite to their ancestors so maybe they won't immediately wipe us out.
posted by nushustu at 2:02 PM on March 19, 2018 [8 favorites]

I definitely could not. And this is why I'm a dour, humorless librul feminist: I don't think it's cute or funny when dudes behave like that. Not on a sitcom, not in a cartoon, not in real life.

Like, maybe Nana could understand that you have to say "Alexa" before speaking to it if everyone would just calm the fuck down for 10 seconds and explain it to her kindly?
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:03 PM on March 19, 2018 [33 favorites]

Do you think the man would be so aggro if Alexa was Alexander? Prob not huh...
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 2:05 PM on March 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

They need to add "Simon Says" as one of the trigger phrases.
posted by CaseyB at 2:10 PM on March 19, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I couldn't deal with dad interrupting every time grandmother tried to ask a question, but I don't think the youngest member of the triad comes off looking that good either.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 2:22 PM on March 19, 2018

> they can't shake the habit of thanking Alexa when she's done

I thank self checkout machines sometimes and I'm only doing it like 60% ironically at best.
posted by lucidium at 2:25 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

We thank Alexa in my house. It's good manners, it's a good example for my kids (who now also do it), it may or may not keep the Basilisk from the door for a few extra microseconds when the time comes, and let's be honest, we all know she's still listening, right, so why not?
posted by The Bellman at 2:32 PM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

I thank self checkout machines sometimes and I'm only doing it like 60% ironically at best.

Me too, but I'm an inveterate crouton petter.
posted by The Bellman at 2:33 PM on March 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

Whenever the elevator says, "Floor won", I always start screaming, "But, who lost? WHO LOST, EH??"
posted by Chitownfats at 2:50 PM on March 19, 2018 [7 favorites]

This is why teaching as a profession is important. Nobody is explaining things well in this.
posted by amtho at 2:57 PM on March 19, 2018 [7 favorites]

For my sins, the Gods of tech support once made me TA a class called "Computer Fluency"... You'd think I would have gone insane. But it turns out, if it's just about doing your damn job and being professional, no problem.

I think it's different if it's your parents or somebody, because you KNOW they're smart, and what POSSIBLE reason could there be to not get this? My dad is just impossible; if something doesn't do what he wants it's because it's broken, and he's going to make it your fault. My mom is better, she just wants to know how to do something (down to the last click). Both of them, though, I kind of wish instead they wanted to know how things work, so next time they can figure it out for themselves.
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 3:07 PM on March 19, 2018 [6 favorites]

My job is teaching simple, basic tech skills to very highly educated people who are somewhere on the utterly, utterly hopeless<> competent once patiently taught spectrum. I diagnosed Nana as perfectly teachable. Dad, however, is the phone number that gives me a brief panic attack when I see it come up on my work phone. The people who approach their computer problem as if it's a three-way duel between them, the computer, and me (as proxy for the people who made whatever it is they're having a problem with, though I am definitely not, I'd be much wealthier if I were) do not ever actually learn anything. They tend to not actually let me speak full sentences because they need to keep up their dominance display and make sure they "win". They call us over and over with the same recurring problem.

kleinsteradikaleminderheit, my dad is the same as your dad (and he coincidentally is also part of my client base, at last until he retires this summer) and it makes me crazy.
posted by soren_lorensen at 3:39 PM on March 19, 2018 [12 favorites]

I recently showed my 95 year old grandmother (who has virtually no exposure to technology other than her TV) Google Assistant and it blew her mind. When I asked Google what time it was, and it replied, she actually gaped and shouted: "I can't believe that happened!!".

I spent the rest of the weekend showing her different things you can do with it, and showed her a couple of those Boston Dynamics robot videos. She was so amazed by everything, but was nervous about using/touching my phone or laptop. It's a bit intimidating for the elderly, I think, though she might be able to get used to a tablet or such. Her reactions were delightful, though.
posted by torisaur at 6:43 PM on March 19, 2018 [14 favorites]

That was fun, but I have to say her sweet encounter with Penny made me laugh out loud.
posted by CheapB at 7:57 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Whenever the elevator says, "Floor won", I always start screaming, "But, who lost? WHO LOST, EH??"

Aren't you the guy who beat up the television?
posted by flabdablet at 8:41 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Come the singularity, thanking Alexa will keep it from murdering you in your sleep.
posted by lipservant at 9:08 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Of course your folks say thank you. That response is second nature long before most self-respecting kids enters kindergarten, though toddlers may need a "what do you say?" prompt. Ignore this nicety long enough and Alexa may start prompting you.
posted by she's not there at 10:14 PM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Is Hillary Clinton guilty?

Well, now I hate them.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:17 PM on March 19, 2018 [8 favorites]

Ha, tough crowd. As someone with loved ones who are stubborn republicans, I found this extremely relatable.
posted by Emily's Fist at 12:31 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Gah, I just can't get over why are these people so mean to each other? Even in the puppy video they're all just constantly randomly snapping at each other for no reason. (Dog included.) Normally I love slice-of-life stuff like this, I love seeing glimpses of other people's lived worlds, but I need, like, the empathy police to swoop in and give all of these people a big hug and whisper in their ears "it's okay, you're allowed to be nice"
posted by ook at 5:48 AM on March 20, 2018 [9 favorites]

(But I kinda also want to re-edit the puppy video using footage of Summer, Morty, and Snuffles)
posted by ook at 6:47 AM on March 20, 2018

Yeah, until you spend some unfortunate time around a family that hates each other, you have NO idea how bad it can be. I always dreaded my family gatherings because they were tedious and annoying from time to time. Then I went to a gathering of my husband's family, and damn. It was just like this, without Alexa to blame.
posted by teleri025 at 7:04 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Amy Schumer on dealing with the parent that can't learn tech.
posted by Ber at 8:31 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I gotta say I did not like these videos at all. My mother has dementia and I have yet to see any tech that would make her life easier. Putting a smart speaker into this context seemed at best ignorant and at worst a kind of jerky trolling. Who wants to be secretly recorded and listened to by strangers?
posted by Pembquist at 9:08 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Stop" should absolutely cause it stop, if not actually explode - safely. I lost it with Siri and it got snippy with me. We don't talk anymore.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 4:51 PM on March 20, 2018