I was curled up on my couch watching my favorite show when I heard the chime of the front doorbell ring from the speaker in my hallway.
My television show was also interrupted with a video notification in the right hand corner of the screen and Alexa telling me “Someone is at your front door.” All this happened at the same time my phone began to vibrate on the cushion next to me also letting me know someone was at the front door.
“Okay, I’ve been properly notified.” I laughed as I got up from the couch, scooped up my phone, and saw that my son’s friend Tommy was at the front door. The notification on my phone also let me know that he was wearing a blue shirt and holding up a white bag. From the picture I could see the bag was from a fast food restaurant.
“Alex!” I called out to my son. “Tommy’s here and he brought snacks!”
I opened the front door. “Hey, Tommy! How are you doing?”
“I’m good.” He said as he came in.
As I shut the door behind him Alex came around the corner. “Hey, Tommy!”
I looked over at Alex. “Have you noticed the Ring doorbell has decided to give more of a description about the person at the door?”
Alex looked confused. “What?”
I held up my phone and showed him the picture of Tommy and the caption stating what color shirt he was wearing and that he was holding a white bag. “It used to just tell us if someone was at the front door. Now it tells you what they’re wearing and holding!”
Alex shrugged his shoulders. “Must be an upgrade in the program.”
I looked back at my phone. “Well, I didn’t order an upgrade. Did you?”
Alex just shook his head as he took the bag from Tommy and headed for the kitchen. “I don’t think you had to order it.” He said over his shoulder. “It’s probably just an AI upgrade.”
“Well, I don’t like it.” I grumbled as I followed both of them into the kitchen. “I feel like it’s too nosy.” I scrolled through app until I got to the picture of him coming home from work an hour earlier. “Look at this one!” I said as I held it up for him to see. “There’s someone coming up the steps holding a cooler!” I looked over at Tommy and showed him. “It’s telling me he’s holding a cooler!” I cried. “That’s creepy!”
Tommy shrugged his shoulders. “He is holding a cooler.” He reminded me.
“Well, it’s just too personal!” I looked at both of them. “Pretty soon I’m going to be walking out the front door for work an the ring camera is going to call out and say, ‘Is that what you’re wearing to work today?’” I shook my head in disgust. “Then it’s going to download what it thinks are some ‘appropriate’ outfits for me to wear and send me a link to Amazon to order them!”
Alex laughed as he grabbed some napkins. “Don’t you think you’re exaggerating just a little bit?”
“No.” I said sadly as I looked back at my phone. “I really don’t.” I sighed as I put my phone on the counter top and went back to the couch to finish my show.
Slice of Life 