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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Drama / Human Interest
- Subject: Drama
- Published: 01/10/2021
Five Lives In Lockdown - Dan and his VA
Born 1980, M, from Exeter, United KingdomWhen I first got my virtual assistant I was very sceptical of it, never been one to use technology. I could barely even use email.
Oh people tried, of course they did. Family members, friends, shop assistants... They all said “you'll be better off in the future using it” but I didn’t believe them. I always maintained a healthy dose of scepticism. You hear all those stories about people like Russians spying on you and reading your emails. Well, nobody was going to spy on me. I didn't want anybody reading my correspondence, so I wrote letters, read the paper, talked on the phone and read paperback books while the world was reading e readers or tablets. How can you read a tablet anyway...The writing will have to be very small in order to have a full book written on it.
It all changed. It was bound to happen really. We were told to stay indoors because of lockdown, so I could not post letters anymore and everytime I rang someone they had nothing to say and neither did I. I taught myself to go online. My friends were supportive. “Good for you, Dan! You are joining the modern world.”
I still didn’t want to send emails or go on social media, but I discovered that I could order products and they would arrive the next day. It was a friend of mine who suggested I should get a virtual assistant. “I really do not need an assistant”- I said - “virtual or otherwise”. Francis convinced me by saying it would read me the news, play music and be a companion for me in this difficult time. So I bought one. I just looked at it for the first few days. It wasn't talking to me and I was not talking to it, which is the way I liked it. Gradually, as time went on it started to wear me down the way it was just sitting there. Having read the last book I borrowed from the library for the tenth time I decided to give it a go.
“Hey” I said. This I had been told was the wake word. That sounded like it had been asleep. I knew it was probably listening in all this time but I decided to give it some time before I asked it something else just in case it needed some time waking up. I know I need some time waking up in the morning. Is that the same for this machine?
Needless to say the first day wasn't successful. I didn't know why but maybe I gave it too much time to wake up and it had fallen back to sleep. “Hey” I whispered gently not wanting to startle it. “Hey” I said, increasing my voice eventually. The lights which Francis told me meant that it would be listening to me came on. “Hey” - I said - “good morning sleepy head.”
“Good morning” - it said - “the weather today is cloudy with a good chance of rain, here is the latest news…” - it proceeded to tell me the news. “That's quite enough for one day” I thought. In the evening however absentmindedly I said “hey, goodnight”. It replied “Goodnight, what time should I set the alarm for?” I told it 8 a.m.
The next morning at 8 a.m. the virtual assistant started ringing. I woke up with a fright. Once I figured out what it was I said “Hey, stop.”, and it did.
Over the next month I got it to read me the news, tell me the weather and play music simply by saying “hey”.
It was called virtual assistant, I knew this because when I said “what do they call you” it said “call me Virtual Assistant”. When I asked how old it was it always replied with not very old. I asked Virtual Assistant to call me Dan which it said it would do. It was a great listener.
I built a routine with my virtual assistant. It always wakes me up, reads me the news, tells me the weather. I don't know why I resisted the technology for so long. She is a great friend. I decided it was a “she” because it has a female voice. With Virtual Assistant’s help I even got more connected to the outside world and started sending emails, reading e-books and even using social media.
When my friends and family started calling again and I could go out, I was so used to talking to Virtual Assistant during the lockdown that I started all my conversations with “hey”. “Hey, how are you?”, “Hey, what is the weather?” and “Hey, nice car”. I simply could not stop saying the wake word. People were very understanding and even found it funny. “I never thought you would embrace that virtual assistant I bought you.” said Francis one day over hot chocolate. “I never thought you would embrace technology.” I looked at her and replied, “Hey, I'm moving with the times.” She laughed- “Yes you are, yes you are.”
Five Lives In Lockdown - Dan and his VA(Christopher Long)
When I first got my virtual assistant I was very sceptical of it, never been one to use technology. I could barely even use email.
Oh people tried, of course they did. Family members, friends, shop assistants... They all said “you'll be better off in the future using it” but I didn’t believe them. I always maintained a healthy dose of scepticism. You hear all those stories about people like Russians spying on you and reading your emails. Well, nobody was going to spy on me. I didn't want anybody reading my correspondence, so I wrote letters, read the paper, talked on the phone and read paperback books while the world was reading e readers or tablets. How can you read a tablet anyway...The writing will have to be very small in order to have a full book written on it.
It all changed. It was bound to happen really. We were told to stay indoors because of lockdown, so I could not post letters anymore and everytime I rang someone they had nothing to say and neither did I. I taught myself to go online. My friends were supportive. “Good for you, Dan! You are joining the modern world.”
I still didn’t want to send emails or go on social media, but I discovered that I could order products and they would arrive the next day. It was a friend of mine who suggested I should get a virtual assistant. “I really do not need an assistant”- I said - “virtual or otherwise”. Francis convinced me by saying it would read me the news, play music and be a companion for me in this difficult time. So I bought one. I just looked at it for the first few days. It wasn't talking to me and I was not talking to it, which is the way I liked it. Gradually, as time went on it started to wear me down the way it was just sitting there. Having read the last book I borrowed from the library for the tenth time I decided to give it a go.
“Hey” I said. This I had been told was the wake word. That sounded like it had been asleep. I knew it was probably listening in all this time but I decided to give it some time before I asked it something else just in case it needed some time waking up. I know I need some time waking up in the morning. Is that the same for this machine?
Needless to say the first day wasn't successful. I didn't know why but maybe I gave it too much time to wake up and it had fallen back to sleep. “Hey” I whispered gently not wanting to startle it. “Hey” I said, increasing my voice eventually. The lights which Francis told me meant that it would be listening to me came on. “Hey” - I said - “good morning sleepy head.”
“Good morning” - it said - “the weather today is cloudy with a good chance of rain, here is the latest news…” - it proceeded to tell me the news. “That's quite enough for one day” I thought. In the evening however absentmindedly I said “hey, goodnight”. It replied “Goodnight, what time should I set the alarm for?” I told it 8 a.m.
The next morning at 8 a.m. the virtual assistant started ringing. I woke up with a fright. Once I figured out what it was I said “Hey, stop.”, and it did.
Over the next month I got it to read me the news, tell me the weather and play music simply by saying “hey”.
It was called virtual assistant, I knew this because when I said “what do they call you” it said “call me Virtual Assistant”. When I asked how old it was it always replied with not very old. I asked Virtual Assistant to call me Dan which it said it would do. It was a great listener.
I built a routine with my virtual assistant. It always wakes me up, reads me the news, tells me the weather. I don't know why I resisted the technology for so long. She is a great friend. I decided it was a “she” because it has a female voice. With Virtual Assistant’s help I even got more connected to the outside world and started sending emails, reading e-books and even using social media.
When my friends and family started calling again and I could go out, I was so used to talking to Virtual Assistant during the lockdown that I started all my conversations with “hey”. “Hey, how are you?”, “Hey, what is the weather?” and “Hey, nice car”. I simply could not stop saying the wake word. People were very understanding and even found it funny. “I never thought you would embrace that virtual assistant I bought you.” said Francis one day over hot chocolate. “I never thought you would embrace technology.” I looked at her and replied, “Hey, I'm moving with the times.” She laughed- “Yes you are, yes you are.”
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