Content: Chapter 3

Vacations with my family are unique, and somehow at the same time very organized.  Because of my parents’… flexible jobs, we are able to go whenever my sister and I have school off. We go places where others families go, like the beach, the mountains, some big city, and even once we went to Europe.  We just… pack differently, foreseeing irregular prospects from our journey.

Mom usually is the one to organize our road trips and vacations.  In fact, it’s her subscribers who know about our vacations before we, the rest of the family, do.  Mom puts out at least two videos before we head out– one for planning the outing, and one for packing for it.  She always has new suitcases to pack up in some new unique way found through blogs she reads or other influencers she networks with.  When we see said baggage near the door, we know to ask about our destination and the duration of the trip so that we may pack our own stuff.

Cameron used to like trips, at least before his schedule for going live on the internet was a thing.  He stayed home for the first couple of trips while the rest of us went on our own.  After those first few tips, he confessed to us that he was too afraid to cook on his own while alone, out of fear of starting a fire and burning down the house.  How he imagined doing so while only using the microwave for instant noodles was beyond me.  He began to join us after that, but only after buying a separate gaming laptop, one weighing many pounds, so that he could continue his work from the hotel rooms wherever we were staying.  Sometimes if he was feeling brave, he streamed live from his phone while following us to the beach or around a city’s streets.

Macy’s favorite place to go is the big cities. If anything, my sister Macy packs the lightest of any of us.  Her bag starts off with only her small bits of camera equipment a few necessary outfits, and only grows from there as she finds more while shopping about the fun new stores.  It seems as if her vacation time is viewed more through the shiny glass of a lens rather than directly through her own eyes.  

Dad doesn’t get much out of trips, apart from maybe ideas for new woodworking projects and furniture pieces while going about to various attractions.  One morning in a hotel, he must have disturbed half of the collection guests going about a table in the breakfast room and snapping pictures of it from every angle.  A few weeks after we got back, he produced a video on ‘copy-cat furniture from scratch’ while replicating that very same table.

Mom and dad take turns accompanying us wherever we go.  My mom’s videos while on location generally have her pretending to herd us around, narrating all the things she had found to do, ordering and eating all the interesting food, and visiting all the backdrop-worthy locations.  Between takes of her videos, we manage to act like most normal and well-adjusted families, simply taking in the sites.  

It is never an outing as a family without one of them being recognized.  It’s no surprise that it is usually Macy, and usually in some fancy store or shopping district.  It usually begins with looks and whispers, and glances at phone screens to double-check, and then a careful yet delighted approach.  Strangers, or rather the individuals parasocially acquainted with my sister, are surprised to find that she is quieter and more reserved in real life compared to herself on social media.  They usually talk her up a bit, ask for a selfie, a follow, a shoutout, or a combination of the above.  I guess nobody asks for autographs anymore.  

Cameron has been noticed a few times as well, generally encompassing people shouting his channel name at him from across the street, or fingers pointed in the shapes of guns, or passing fist-bumps.  He responds with a similar energy, and then when out of view, slumps back down to look at his feet and hide among the rest of us.

My parents have never gotten noticed to my knowledge.  I assume that most people watching middle-aged content creators doing random things around the house are not the same type of people who go out to socialize.  I’m perhaps the only person in my family who does not show their face publicly on any site I use, nor would I imagine that if I did, anyone would dare call out to me out of fear of being seen connected to the types of circles that I am involved with.  

It was a few years ago that our sociology class in high school talked about digital citizenship and having a presence online, especially with social media.  The teacher went on about trying your best to stay anonymous anywhere where posted content isn’t private.  Of course, they didn’t know about my family, but the friends in that class who did know about my parents and siblings offered me a few smirks.  I guess there really is no escape either way.

Content: Chapter 2

I saw Macy for a total of five minutes before she went to her room, dragging her bags behind her.  I feel like every waking hour of her day is chopped up into two distinct portions- times where she is posting and times where she thinks about posting. She has to make a new update or piece of content in time with what seems like a premeditated schedule in order to sate her followers and get that fresh hit of dopamine from the sudden rush of heart-shaped icons.  

Through the wall I could hear the short periods of her pouring her heart out over a new piece of clothing, followed by the extended silence of her changing into whatever new thing she had gotten, and fawning loudly once again.  Other days her videos seemed to be streams of consciousness, or more accurately a waterfall of cutesy mouth sounds, slang I had never heard before in my life and other squeals, while she did her hair or put on some fresh shade of makeup.  She didn’t speak that way in real life, and in fact, was an English honors student who got better grades than me when I was in the same classes, but no judgment here.

A couple of years ago I would have thought that Cameron was going to head off to college, as brainy as he was, but he went viral with the inclusion in some famous montage, and with that, he ditched his scholarship to hone his craft yelling into a microphone.  Again, no judgment.  At this point, it seemed as if I were going to be in college ahead of him, but also I am aware that the internet can never keep its focus on one thing for a very long time.

Speaking of the internet, you’re probably realizing now that we are all heavily reliant on it.  I can remember clearly the last time it went out.  Cameron, live at the time, was the first to notice as his broadcast came screeching to a halt.  His rare appearance into the rest of the house was proceeded by his voice. “Dad?”

“He’s out in the garage.” My mom called back from the kitchen.

“He didn’t trip a breaker again?”

“We got the garage on a separate circuit a few weeks ago, don’t you remember?”

By that time, he had already gone into his mode reminiscent of my sister.  Phone in hand and camera pointed at his face, he began his rant to his followers on whatever social media he felt appropriate, explaining the situation.  “Internet is down boys, you know the deal.  Stick around and hit us with some pray emotes in chat to get the internet gods back in our favor!”

Macy came out next. “Cameron, you’re too loud.  I’m trying to record something.”

“Well, good luck uploading it, cause the wifi is down.”

“Is that why my upload stopped?” I heard my dad’s voice suddenly coming from the hallway that connected the house to the garage.

“I heard they were doing some work on the street down the road,” My mom spoke up.

By that time, my quiet time of typing away on my laptop from the couch in the living room had come to an end.  At the very least, it was the closest to seeing the entire family engaged together in one place for a long while.

“What sort of work?” Cameron asked.

“Who knows?” My mom responded with a shrug. “Oh, actually I picked the notification off the door a couple of days ago.”

“And that is where?” Dad said with a hopeful look.

“Uh…” My mom paused from her label-making to scan the available flat surfaces around the front of the house. “Oh right, it’s in the pile.”

“What pile?”

“Of documents.  I was going to do a bill-paying ASMR.”

“ASMR?” Macy suddenly popped out from the hall as she was on her way back to her room. “Mom, you’re too old for that!”

Dad looked between mom and his daughter. “What’s this AM…SR nonsense?”

“Whispering different stuff and playing around with the microphone… it makes your ears tingle or whatever,” Cameron mentioned while swiping about on his phone furiously in the corner.

“People watch that?” Dad asked.

“They do,” Mom replied, fully assured of herself.

The tension held in the room for a while longer while my family members were deciding what to do with themselves in their newfound internet-free life.  The low clacking of my laptop keyboard must have been too much for them to handle, and several sets of eyes were suddenly on me. “If… if they cut a line somewhere… like for the internet… that might be bad, right?”

Dad rubbed at his face and let out a low huff. “I mean, yeah.  C’mon, I got a video needing to be ready for tomorrow.”

“Uh yeah,” Cameron complained. “And I got viewers dropping by the millisecond.  Forget it, I’m going to take my phone’s internet.  Mom, you’ll allow me some extra data this month, right?”

“Forget it, Cameron!” Macy responded first. “I need that for going live this weekend when I’m out.  People on your channel can just watch someone else!”

“Uh, yeah, that’s the point!” He hissed back at her.  “They need to be watching me.”

Dad was pacing and moving back and forth across the living room to check down either side of the street. “Maybe if they wrecked some line out there, I could head out there and try to help them out.”

“The city would not like that.” Mom admonished him, “besides, you’re a woodworker, not a cable guy.”

“I know how to get my hands dirty.”

Trying to block out the loud conversation, I noticed the twinkling of an icon in the corner of my screen. “Uh… looks like it’s back.”

Dad yanked out his phone and confirmed. “Hey, yeah.  Thanks, kiddo!”

A clear enthusiastic call came down the hall from none other than my older brother. “Let’s go boys!” followed by a loud slam of the door.