What's in a name? For most people, nothing much. But for one 21-year-old New Jersey resident, having the same name as two very popular virtual assistants makes every day a "waking nightmare." Alexa Seary — that's right, first name Alexa and last name pronounced just like Apple's e-assistant Siri — says that ever since the introduction of the two digital entities, she's been the butt of endless jokes.
"It started off at work. It would be, 'Siri, do this, Siri do that,' and now they do the same thing with Alexa," she told The Huffington Post. "Mostly people just say, 'Haha, I’m telling you what to do,' and I'm like, 'Okay, haha, that's a new one.'"
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Seary says that back in 2011, when Apple debuted Siri, her friends and coworkers would address her by her last name and act like they were talking to their phones. She adds that she didn't even know that her last name shared a pronunciation with Apple's Siri, saying that she thought it was "sir-ee."
And as for Alexa? Let's just say that Seary doesn't plan on getting Amazon's virtual concierge anytime soon. She's not going to make herself the punchline more often than she has to, even if her family thinks it would be hilarious.
"My mom's husband was thinking about getting one and he thought it was pretty funny," she told HuffPo. "If we had one in our house it would be a complete disaster. I would scream back every time someone said 'Alexa' automatically or vice versa."
Here's hoping that Seary's friends and family treat her better than some people are treating their Alexa modules. Believe it or not, some people ask their virtual assistants some not-so-appropriate questions. Jokes are one thing, but that definitely crosses the line.