just doing things
after headaches and doom scrolling, i finally sat down to write my afterschool notes for today at approximately 6pm. i was using notion when my mom just stared at my screen. i don't know if it's just me hating it when my mom looks at my screen and therefore making scenarios about my mom picking on my notes, so i just reflexively said 'why.' she asked me what i was doing and what i was using, so i told her i was taking notes for school using notion. she asked me where i learned about notion, which i didn't have the chance to answer (i just heard about it on the internet), and how to use notion. i said i wasn't using it for anything too difficult, just using it like a note. but still she was like, 'isn't notion hard to use?'
i grew up with having to navigate computers without any instruction manuals, i liked to figure out hidden features in my 콩순이 computer1 or electronic dictionary2, as well as my parents' phones. in international school i was way behind everyone in ict class and the teacher never bothered to explain a lot of stuff so i had to deal with that too. meanwhile, for my parents technology has always been the cool new thing that you have to learn to succeed, and you do that by following courses that will tell you features you never knew about. so whenever we don't know how to do something on a device, i will try everything (there was an xkcd comic relevant that i don't remember) and my parents will google it or ask for my help (usually 1. i know it cuz i've encountered that before 2. i do everything until i find the thing my mom's looking for, and sometimes i coincidentally find it on the first try).
for everyday skills like cooking, cleaning, or taking care of yourself, it's the opposite. my parents learned them by exploring because nobody taught them, i learned them when my parents were like 'hey it's time for you to learn how to tie your hair' and after they taught me they'd still do it for me anyways. (though there's also my mom being too cautious. one time my dad was making me practice peeling an apple, when my mom was trying to convince my dad that it was too dangerous. i was 13 lol)
so i'm wondering now, what if i tried everyday skills by exploring, just like how i do it when using a device? who knows maybe i should try cooking a package ramen (봉지라면) and accidentally burn up the whole apartment
you know those 'computers' for kids that have minigames for learning to read, write, count etc.?↩
my mom told me she bought it in the early 2000s, it isn't something that normal people in my generation grew up with so kids have always been impressed at the thing. the first time someone outside my family mentioned it without me bringing it up first was in 3rd grade when my teacher was playing a youtube vid about dictionaries and the video person said 'you're at least a 90s kid if you know this electronic dictionary' and i was like 'guess i'm a 90s kid now'↩