My Mother, Fandom, and Me - Part 1

My mother is 77 years old.

She celebrated her 77th birthday this year.

She has a natural eldest-daughter temperament, is patient, and loves to take care of others.

Since my parents ran a business, she took care of her younger siblings from a young age and married my father early.

She worked her fingers to the bone for the sake of caring for our grandparents, dealing with my free-spirited father, and raising us sisters.

My mother and I currently live together.

It has already been 10 years since my father passed away...
Other than going to weekly health exercises, she spends her days living a leisurely life.

My mother has had a 'oshi' (favorite idol/celebrity) for several years now.

At first, she was satisfied just watching them on TV. Eventually, she joined the fan club and started going to concerts.

My mother's old flip phone broke, so she decided to change models.

At that time, I was using an iPhone 11 Pro Max. I had just switched to it, but I felt the screen was too big and inconvenient to carry around...

My mother, who spends a lot of time at home, doesn't really take her phone out much.

I thought about having my mother use it.

But jumping straight to an iPhone... I wondered if it would be too much for her...

I also considered a 'simple smartphone' for seniors and consulted my mother with a brochure in front of us.

'I want a bigger screen! I want to watch my favorite's YouTube videos!'

And just like that, my mother ended up using my iPhone.

While a flicker of anxiety crossed my mind—would my tech-illiterate mother be able to master it?...

My mother got her hands on the iPhone.
Just teaching her the basics was a huge struggle...

Even so, she kept raising the bar for herself, saying she wanted to watch her favorite's YouTube videos or read their blog.

I sat next to her every day and taught her how to operate it.

Days went by where no matter how many times I told her, she would still tap on the ads...

'No, you shouldn't press this ad.'

'What do you mean by ad? Is it a flyer?'

I see, from my mother's perspective, an 'ad' refers to a newspaper advertisement.

What on earth did she think I was talking about when I explained ads until now...

That was where the explanation started.

Even when a YouTube commercial played, she couldn't tap 'skip' and would just let the video stop every time.

'You can skip this commercial by pressing the skip button on the bottom right.'

'Oh! So commercials (why are you rephrasing it...) play, huh. They should write it in bigger letters instead of such small ones!'

Oh, boy...
Mom, that defeats the purpose of a commercial...

But the power of a favorite idol is amazing.

Before I knew it, she was able to use it by herself even when I wasn't around.

Having become an iPhone user, my mother dove into the world of the iPhone without even sparing time for sleep.

When I wake up early in the morning, she is happily washing dishes while playing her favorite's songs at full volume and singing along.

A little before my mother got the iPhone, her chronic asthma worsened and she lost 3 kilograms.

That same mother is now singing happily.

The power of a favorite idol is great.

Since she has lived only for her family until now, I want her to devote herself to her fandom to her heart's content from now on.

Having a favorite idol is a source of vitality for life.

Watching my mother's back as she washes the dishes

Switching to an iPhone was a huge success!

In my heart, I held up a 'Huge Success' sign like on a hidden camera show.

Click here for Part 2 ↓