Generation Gap

A millennial takes the reins this month, with her tale of woe caused by a communication crisis in the household. Gus Silber’s daughter, Rachel, tells all...

The house is in a state of crisis. My sister is wandering around aimlessly, sighing and rolling her eyes. My brother is lying on his bed, counting the slow rotations of his ceiling fan.

‘There’s absolutely nothing to do!’ he exclaims to the rest of the house. ‘Just read a book!’ my mom shouts in reply, turning yet another page of her hefty blockbuster.

It may seem like it’s the end of the world in our household, but in fact it’s something much worse. Our Wi-Fi is down.

We can’t watch Netflix, we can’t browse Facebook, we can’t Snapchat, Spotify, Instagram, or tweet. We can’t even pretend that what we’re really doing is using Google to help us with our homework.

It’s all Dad’s fault, because he’s in charge of making sure the internet is always working and always on. ‘It’s not my fault!’ he shouts from his study, tapping away furiously on his keyboard. ‘There’s probably just some sort of break in the transatlantic fibre-optic cable.’