Saving Face On Facebook!

Hub left me a column in the Financial Times to read. It is by Lucy Kellaway, a 50 something columnist, on the realization that if she doesn't grasp the concept of Facebook her generation will soon be relegated to a dark hole!

What made me chuckle is the fact that I'm a tad older than she, as are a great many of my "friends" on Facebook, and we all seem to "grasp" it quite well! Actually, I think it's because we're getting lazy in our old age. Oh sure, we can say it's because it's a great way to communicate with people around the world. That's what we said when we started blogging. But then most of us had something to say in our blogs other than the fact we planted bulbs in the garden this morning or some such.

All you have to do on Facebook to make worldwide acquaintances is play a game. My addiction of choice is the Zoo game. Not too many of my local "friends" are into it so I went on the help site asking for more zoos to visit. My friends jumped from 20 something to now over 70. There are an awful lot of zoo players out there with whom I share nothing in common except that silly game! Yet whatever they write about their life I get to see.

I'm not sure this is all good as Hub just came in from supervising the first stage of installing driveway gates at the entrance to our property! How can you be paranoid and be on Facebook at the same time?! As with blogging, I guess you trust luck and the idea that most people aren't going to take the time to track you down from Facebook if you happen to offend them.

One thing she mentioned I think she may have gotten wrong. She read that 36 million mothers in the U.S. signed up to keep an eye on their children. Talk about not grasping it! Now, if my mother were alive...no, never mind. She'd never have a computer. She wouldn't even have a microwave. Let's go back a generation or so.

If I had kids they'd probably let me friend them. The interaction, if wanted, is better than e-mail. But when kids, teens, hold the "friend" button I really doubt too many of those Mom's got the accepted notice.

Times, they are a changing. The best part about it is more and more old acquaintances try it out and you can reconnect. I've had a few over the past few days. Many of my blogging friends are also members and we see one another in an entirely different light than from blogs alone.

I suppose Twitter will continue to grow by leaps and bounds but I'm not there yet. I still have trouble entering a phone number in my cell address book and it does not have a keyboard to make twittering easier. Heck, it doesn't even take photos! So, I'm really not all that hip, or whatever the jargon of today may be. But I manage.

I'm not quite ready for that dark hole no matter my generation. I'm getting too close to one as is. I'm looking for technology from many sources to keep me out of it!