As much as us geezer folk like to slow life down and cling to how things were “when we were young,” we sure have taken to this newfangled thing called social media.
Primarily, from my observations and several news reports, old folks now are all over Facebook. They’re sharing lots of personal pictures, playing games, spreading political views, sharing funny videos or catchy phrases, pushing causes or sports teams and just generally spending a lot of time on something nearly all of them had nothing to do with only a few short years ago.
Various media and internet outlets have been pointing out this trend for years but now it has become very obvious.
From a May 2013 report on Gawker:
“Facebook is quickly becoming a spooky graveyard, bereft of teens, populated by only a few try-hard adults and a pile of old elephant bones according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. There’s also a lot of drama there. Specifically: too much drama.
“As the AP puts it:
“ ‘Twitter is booming as a social media destination for teenagers who complain about too many adults and too much drama on Facebook.’ ”
From a December 2013 post on Jezebel:
“Facebook is fast becoming the internet's parent pasture for recently replicated humans who've decided that absolutely everyone in their immediate (and not-so-immediate) social circle needs to see a 60-photo series of their new infant hiding behind a sofa to take a dump in its tiny pants. Like a monkey. A small, hairless monkey that knows how to lie and express monosyllabic thoughts. Teens don't want to see anybody else's infant monkeyperson, which is why they're fleeing Facebook forevsies.
“The Great Teen Facebook Flight isn't shocking news, and it's been pointed out before that younger people are avoiding what is increasingly becoming the social media site for people "of a certain age," i.e. an old age. A recent (and extensive) European study, though, confirmed that Facebook is "dead and buried" to older European teenagers, who've all been fleeing the Facebook galleon for Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. Since European teens are ahead of the curve on everything, it's only a matter of time before their parochial, arithmetic-challenged American counterparts also set fire to the desiccated corpse of Facebook and perform a ritual dance around it (metaphorically).
“Teens just want to be as far away from full-blown adults as possible, even on the internet, which means that Facebook will soon be that thing you tell people about when you want to insinuate that you're old and all the most interesting things about your life have already been posted, liked, and forgotten on Mark Zuckerberg's Repository of Aging Adults.”
Kinda harsh but the point is: The youthful, cool aspect of being on Facebook is fading fast. It still has its benefits for many youths — like staying in touch with family and friends and quickly reaching a sizable audience when help is needed — but the rising, dominating presence of us older humans on the site is giving it all the hipness of a chaperoned high school dance.
So, as we geezers or near-geezers gradually take over this social phenomenon — created in 2004 but only open to the general public since 2006 — I have mixed emotions.
My entry into Facebook a few years ago was solely to promote my book. Social networking — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr — was seen as a major way to get the word out about self-published books.
Then, my old camera-supply guy (his name actually was Guy) said I absolutely have to have a personal Facebook site in order for people to find my book.
That brought me into the Facebook world, and a second attraction quickly became its connection to distant family members.
From that came regular participation in the site and a furthering of the magnetic properties of its family connections.
Now I am “friends” with a few dozen people, still a paltry amount by Facebook standards, but more than enough for me.
Actually, the real question is: “What are Facebook standards?”
Is a “friend” just anyone you happen to know, as opposed to someone you are actually friends with? Do you build up your roster Facebook “friends” in order to have a wide network of contacts for sharing your personal, business, political or other stuff? Do you befriend individuals because you really want to know their likes and dislikes about all the minutia in their lives – like pets, sunsets, grandchildren, meals, trips, political views, cat videos, music choices or job status? Or do you put up with such stuff as part of the price of being well-friended on Facebook? Or do you take most of the “friends” off your newsfeed so you don’t have to get such stuff?
I guess, like all things in life, everyone would have different answers to those questions.
But I would also guess most of us just jumped aboard this social network train for pretty simple reasons like mine and now don’t give much thought to why they continue or expand their usage. It’s just an easy and, if used sparingly, harmless way to pass the time.
For many, Facebook networking probably is the modern-day version of the old in-person coffeeshop, country store or barroom networking. You get lots of news about community comings and goings (aka “gossip” or “scuttlebutt”) being passed around by people you at least remotely know. I was never one to mix and mingle like that (just part of the old journalistic, stay-distant persona) but it is popular everywhere, even to this day (at least for older folks).
That role for Facebook, though, is quite removed from the original intent for Facebook, as I understand it. In the book “The Social Network,” and the movie it inspired, the origin of this transition to a crazily popular and lucrative worldwide networking site is traced to the intersection of innocent Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and wily (greedy?) Napster founder Sean Parker. Whether that’s true is open to debate, I guess, from reading the Wikepedia entry on that literary work and motion picture.
But the resulting product is indeed far removed from the youthful meeting and socializing place envisioned 11 years ago. In addition to becoming a cyber gathering place for the geezer set, it’s highly commercial, ubiquitous and widely used by the general population, not just its youth. Hence, as noted in the articles cited above, it’s growing lack of appeal to its first intended audience.
Is this a good thing?
I guess I’m not the person to answer that. My interest in Facebook is pretty limited when I’m not in the self-publishing, book-pushing business.
There are some enjoyable aspects, like a weekly entertainment question posted by a former resident of my hometown who, as a high school student, once wrote movie reviews for my weekly newspaper. That reaches an audience of his varied Facebook friends and exposes me to lots of different movies, music, TV shows etc. (and the multitude of personal tastes associated with them) while allowing me to express/share my own eclectic interests.
Also, on the hometown community front, I’m keeping up with the major life events of many individuals who were part of my past. It’s interesting, if a bit on the nosy side. Meanwhile as befits my own approach to life, I’m not sharing much of my own personal stuff, just your basic family, proud parent, proud grandparent postings in addition to this blog and book promotional items.
So, just continuing in such an arms-length mode suits me. It seems innocuous, as far as that goes.
But this takeover by the geezer set obviously annoys a lot of the youths who were properly using the site for its interacting, social value within their own demographic.
And that trend is probably only going to get worse, if you believe the main argument being advanced in a recent controversy in our town — that a wide swath of older people still has yet to discover the internet, much social networking, in general, or Facebook, in particular.
The local disgruntlement involves the shutdown of the more than 150-year-old weekly newspaper, the one my wife and I ran for a decade (1982-92). The new owners, a married couple in their 20s, are replacing it with a daily regional online news and sports site.
There are lots of issues involved with this move but one of the biggest ones evidently is that many of the newspaper’s longtime subscribers are not computer savvy and thus will no longer have a source for their local news.
Based on my Facebook experiences, I would be amazed if this is really the case — if more than a few older local residents still are not on the internet, regularly using email and possessing smartphones. I often come across men and women in their 80s or even 90s (a fellow swimmer) who are internet savvy.
The World Wide Web has taken over, worldwide. It takes more effort to avoid it than accept it and use it. It’s almost scary how much society depends on it now. Plus, once you use it, you find it has a lot to offer, so there’s that addictive factor.
And Facebook, being free and fun, seems so benign. The biggest problem is that, as we geezers all know so well, nothing in life is free.
Facebook is not all it seems. It is out to gather information about you and sell it. If you’re comfortable with that, then it may not otherwise pose much of a threat. But if you’re bugged by intrusions into your personal life, the entire internet thing can drive you batty unless you’re tech savvy enough to know how to protect yourself.
For older folk, now that they’ve taken on this social networking at a surprisingly fast clip, it would be good to retain their tried-and-true take-it-slow skepticism toward the new and complicated trends of modern life.
Meanwhile, as youth begin migrating to the latest and greatest new thing, we geezers better pay attention. We’ll probably be going there next.
Primarily, from my observations and several news reports, old folks now are all over Facebook. They’re sharing lots of personal pictures, playing games, spreading political views, sharing funny videos or catchy phrases, pushing causes or sports teams and just generally spending a lot of time on something nearly all of them had nothing to do with only a few short years ago.
Various media and internet outlets have been pointing out this trend for years but now it has become very obvious.
From a May 2013 report on Gawker:
“Facebook is quickly becoming a spooky graveyard, bereft of teens, populated by only a few try-hard adults and a pile of old elephant bones according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. There’s also a lot of drama there. Specifically: too much drama.
“As the AP puts it:
“ ‘Twitter is booming as a social media destination for teenagers who complain about too many adults and too much drama on Facebook.’ ”
From a December 2013 post on Jezebel:
“Facebook is fast becoming the internet's parent pasture for recently replicated humans who've decided that absolutely everyone in their immediate (and not-so-immediate) social circle needs to see a 60-photo series of their new infant hiding behind a sofa to take a dump in its tiny pants. Like a monkey. A small, hairless monkey that knows how to lie and express monosyllabic thoughts. Teens don't want to see anybody else's infant monkeyperson, which is why they're fleeing Facebook forevsies.
“The Great Teen Facebook Flight isn't shocking news, and it's been pointed out before that younger people are avoiding what is increasingly becoming the social media site for people "of a certain age," i.e. an old age. A recent (and extensive) European study, though, confirmed that Facebook is "dead and buried" to older European teenagers, who've all been fleeing the Facebook galleon for Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. Since European teens are ahead of the curve on everything, it's only a matter of time before their parochial, arithmetic-challenged American counterparts also set fire to the desiccated corpse of Facebook and perform a ritual dance around it (metaphorically).
“Teens just want to be as far away from full-blown adults as possible, even on the internet, which means that Facebook will soon be that thing you tell people about when you want to insinuate that you're old and all the most interesting things about your life have already been posted, liked, and forgotten on Mark Zuckerberg's Repository of Aging Adults.”
Kinda harsh but the point is: The youthful, cool aspect of being on Facebook is fading fast. It still has its benefits for many youths — like staying in touch with family and friends and quickly reaching a sizable audience when help is needed — but the rising, dominating presence of us older humans on the site is giving it all the hipness of a chaperoned high school dance.
So, as we geezers or near-geezers gradually take over this social phenomenon — created in 2004 but only open to the general public since 2006 — I have mixed emotions.
My entry into Facebook a few years ago was solely to promote my book. Social networking — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr — was seen as a major way to get the word out about self-published books.
Then, my old camera-supply guy (his name actually was Guy) said I absolutely have to have a personal Facebook site in order for people to find my book.
That brought me into the Facebook world, and a second attraction quickly became its connection to distant family members.
From that came regular participation in the site and a furthering of the magnetic properties of its family connections.
Now I am “friends” with a few dozen people, still a paltry amount by Facebook standards, but more than enough for me.
Actually, the real question is: “What are Facebook standards?”
Is a “friend” just anyone you happen to know, as opposed to someone you are actually friends with? Do you build up your roster Facebook “friends” in order to have a wide network of contacts for sharing your personal, business, political or other stuff? Do you befriend individuals because you really want to know their likes and dislikes about all the minutia in their lives – like pets, sunsets, grandchildren, meals, trips, political views, cat videos, music choices or job status? Or do you put up with such stuff as part of the price of being well-friended on Facebook? Or do you take most of the “friends” off your newsfeed so you don’t have to get such stuff?
I guess, like all things in life, everyone would have different answers to those questions.
But I would also guess most of us just jumped aboard this social network train for pretty simple reasons like mine and now don’t give much thought to why they continue or expand their usage. It’s just an easy and, if used sparingly, harmless way to pass the time.
For many, Facebook networking probably is the modern-day version of the old in-person coffeeshop, country store or barroom networking. You get lots of news about community comings and goings (aka “gossip” or “scuttlebutt”) being passed around by people you at least remotely know. I was never one to mix and mingle like that (just part of the old journalistic, stay-distant persona) but it is popular everywhere, even to this day (at least for older folks).
That role for Facebook, though, is quite removed from the original intent for Facebook, as I understand it. In the book “The Social Network,” and the movie it inspired, the origin of this transition to a crazily popular and lucrative worldwide networking site is traced to the intersection of innocent Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and wily (greedy?) Napster founder Sean Parker. Whether that’s true is open to debate, I guess, from reading the Wikepedia entry on that literary work and motion picture.
But the resulting product is indeed far removed from the youthful meeting and socializing place envisioned 11 years ago. In addition to becoming a cyber gathering place for the geezer set, it’s highly commercial, ubiquitous and widely used by the general population, not just its youth. Hence, as noted in the articles cited above, it’s growing lack of appeal to its first intended audience.
Is this a good thing?
I guess I’m not the person to answer that. My interest in Facebook is pretty limited when I’m not in the self-publishing, book-pushing business.
There are some enjoyable aspects, like a weekly entertainment question posted by a former resident of my hometown who, as a high school student, once wrote movie reviews for my weekly newspaper. That reaches an audience of his varied Facebook friends and exposes me to lots of different movies, music, TV shows etc. (and the multitude of personal tastes associated with them) while allowing me to express/share my own eclectic interests.
Also, on the hometown community front, I’m keeping up with the major life events of many individuals who were part of my past. It’s interesting, if a bit on the nosy side. Meanwhile as befits my own approach to life, I’m not sharing much of my own personal stuff, just your basic family, proud parent, proud grandparent postings in addition to this blog and book promotional items.
So, just continuing in such an arms-length mode suits me. It seems innocuous, as far as that goes.
But this takeover by the geezer set obviously annoys a lot of the youths who were properly using the site for its interacting, social value within their own demographic.
And that trend is probably only going to get worse, if you believe the main argument being advanced in a recent controversy in our town — that a wide swath of older people still has yet to discover the internet, much social networking, in general, or Facebook, in particular.
The local disgruntlement involves the shutdown of the more than 150-year-old weekly newspaper, the one my wife and I ran for a decade (1982-92). The new owners, a married couple in their 20s, are replacing it with a daily regional online news and sports site.
There are lots of issues involved with this move but one of the biggest ones evidently is that many of the newspaper’s longtime subscribers are not computer savvy and thus will no longer have a source for their local news.
Based on my Facebook experiences, I would be amazed if this is really the case — if more than a few older local residents still are not on the internet, regularly using email and possessing smartphones. I often come across men and women in their 80s or even 90s (a fellow swimmer) who are internet savvy.
The World Wide Web has taken over, worldwide. It takes more effort to avoid it than accept it and use it. It’s almost scary how much society depends on it now. Plus, once you use it, you find it has a lot to offer, so there’s that addictive factor.
And Facebook, being free and fun, seems so benign. The biggest problem is that, as we geezers all know so well, nothing in life is free.
Facebook is not all it seems. It is out to gather information about you and sell it. If you’re comfortable with that, then it may not otherwise pose much of a threat. But if you’re bugged by intrusions into your personal life, the entire internet thing can drive you batty unless you’re tech savvy enough to know how to protect yourself.
For older folk, now that they’ve taken on this social networking at a surprisingly fast clip, it would be good to retain their tried-and-true take-it-slow skepticism toward the new and complicated trends of modern life.
Meanwhile, as youth begin migrating to the latest and greatest new thing, we geezers better pay attention. We’ll probably be going there next.