Chapter 1 | Family Relationship

Have you ever felt lonely not being able to talk to your mom or your dad? If yes, then I could say the same! My mom’s been working in Japan for God knows when, I lost count already. And it was very hard for us to communicate. My mom used to call directly from her phone here and when there’s something I need to tell her, I call directly and it was expensive. There came a time where my mom found a cheaper way to contact us. It is cheap, but it still costs her. She used something like a card load, where there’s certain duration or time your call will last. I’d miss call her and a few minutes she’d call back. I used to contact her through Yahoo!Mail but it was hard because I had to wait for replies and sometimes she could not read it. 

My mom used to use a flip phone, but she switched to an android phone and then started our way to communicate faster. She insisted that I make a LINE account so we can talk there. I also made a Viber account and we actually used both, doesn’t really matter where. I liked the stickers in LINE, but I like Viber more because it’s easier. Then there came a time that she asked me and cousins to make her a Facebook account so she could be updated with us. It was very convenient for us and my mom as well. We then talked using Facebook Messenger it was very instant. She also posted pictures of some of the happenings there. I could also know how my brother’s doing and I could see pictures of my mom’s co-workers. I could see how well she’s doing as well. I could also see that even though most of the times she’s so tired from work it makes her happy to be able to talk to us because it actually feels like my mom’s living alone. My brother is a very quiet person. He doesn’t really speak much unless you talk to him or asking my mom something or telling my mom that he’ll eat ahead. 

New media is such a great help in my family’s relationship to grow even more. If not for new media we would not be closer than we are today. And being able to talk to each other every day really lessens our daily stress from work or school. My relationship with my brother grew with the help of LINE. Yes, LINE. It started with me asking my mom what my brother’s phone number is so I could add him in LINE. After he had accepted my request, I sent him a message and I was very happy. I really wanted to talk to my brother and wanted to be close to him. We were separated since I was in second grade and we weren’t able to communicate, the two of us. After talking through LINE (we talked in Japanese), I was able to have the courage to talk to him about random things in person as well. We talked generally about anime, mangas, J-pop songs and Japanese voice actors. Basically, we talked about Japanese related stuff. I felt that I’ve moved forward to that one wish I had; to be close to my brother. And again, new media did its job for me.