The homemade clip features an eight-minute tirade by American father Tommy Jordon, who was so incensed by his teenage daughter's irresponsible use of Facebook - she'd posted disparaging comments about her family - that he decided to detail her sins to the Internet world. And as such things go, it has turned him into an overnight celebrity.
I think his mid-western swagger might have something to do with his newfound notoriety. In the video, he wears a wide brimmed hat, cowboy boots and puffs on a cigarette (probably a Marlboro). But wait, the best part comes at the end when he points a gun to his daughter's laptop on the ground.
'This right here is my .45,' he says before blowing the offending item to pieces. Some critics have since labelled him a trigger-happy redneck, a bad parent and even a psychopath.
But forget the prudes, Mr. Jordan, I'm behind you. After all, if I had a dollar for the number of times I've wanted to blast a gadget out of someone's hands, I'd have money coming out of my ears.
However, my gripe with teenagers and technology is slightly different. I haven't been the subject of a defamatory Facebook post, not yet anyway. But I truly believe that computers, smartphones, tablets and MP3 players have turned young people into zombies. Not the flesh-eating kind, that would be too exciting. I mean the devoid-of-soul kind.
Take for instance my experience last week, when my boyfriend and I had dinner with his extended family.
Deemed a generation younger than the 'proper' adults, the two of us were shoo-ed away to hold the fort at the 'kids' table'. We had for company three teenage cousins, a girl and two boys, who appeared surgically attached to their iPhones.
Still, I was optimistic.
'Hello,' I said chirpily. No one looked up from their toys. 'Am I invisible?' I whispered. 'No, but you're no Angry Bird,' replied my boyfriend.
The soup arrived but by this time, they had their earphones plugged in to Lady Gaga.
'Soup?' I ventured. That didn't register either, though I did get a perceptible shake of the head from one. A sign of life!
By the roast duck course, one of the boys had set up a mini entertainment system between his bowl and chopsticks. Unbelievably, he had perched his iPhone on a stand to allow for maximum viewing pleasure. The girl was lost in a black hole of texting. The other boy, bless his dedication, was probably at Stage 100 of Angry Birds.
It all reminded me of a thread I once saw on an Internet forum titled Does It Seem Like Young People Are Getting Smarter? Voted best answer: 'No. Advances in technology cover up the fact that young people are getting dumber.'
Barely 10 words were exchanged across the dinner table that fateful night.
On the flip side, my boyfriend and I merrily wolfed down a meal for five. 'Their loss is our gain,' said my boyfriend. 'We'll WhatsApp them those words of wisdom.'
I'm no Luddite and I know technology is here to stay. But can that be used as an excuse for this level of rudeness and social ineptitude?
This is now an all-too-familiar malady. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I feel sorry for parents whose kids are so absorbed in Facebooking that they have no interest in the conversation around them. Poor mum and dad, I think. All that money they are paying for their family to have a nice dinner and their precious offspring won't even give them the time of the day.
Would those of us born before the digital age have been able to get away with that? Heck no. My mother used to hang a cane behind my chair to ensure that I sat up properly, ate what was put on my plate and answered whatever questions that were lobbed at me. I dread to think what she would have done had I whipped out my handheld Tetris game.
The issue of respect aside, I sometimeslook at these tech-addicted kids - often with their mouths agape and eyes glazed over - and wonder: Er, is anyone even at home? Why have we let zombie Armageddon happen?
The expert take on this is straightforward: Grown-ups should first look in the mirror. Young people are merely following in the footsteps of role models such as their own parent, who are also reliant on iPhones and Blackberrys but think it is okay because 'it's for work'.
Work or no, the message to the next generation remains the same, that it is acceptable to put the rest of the world on pause.
I suppose the difference lies in one's ability to switch off. Despite our reliance on modern tools, people my age and older still remember a life without them. We know when to put them down and interact like human beings. Those who were born and bred digital natives haven't - and may never learn that skill.
It is official then. i am a finger-wagging old fogey complaining about the youth of today. Perhaps I should be a bit more understanding, given the view that new technologies have blown all social norms out of the window. But in my pique, I much prefer some shotgun diplomacy, Tommy Jordon-style, to get my point across.
Lock up your iPhones, it's time to load up my Super Soaker.
- By [Sandra Leong], taken from [The Sunday Times Lifestyle], 19 Feb 2012
