Should I Really Join Facebook?

A good laugh for people in the over 60 group!

When I bought my Blackberry, I thought about the 30-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a cell phone that plays music, takes videos, pictures and communicates with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, my 13 grand kids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife and everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. I had to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside that gadget was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-u-lating." You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then if I made a right turn instead. Well, it was not a good relationship...

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions, checking bathrooms, and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, "No, but I do fart a lot."

P.S. I know some of you are not over 60. I sent it to you to allow you to forward it to those who are. I figured your sense of humor could handle it.

We senior citizens don't need any more gadgets. The TV remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle.

 

Our world isn't any more complex or complicated that back in the good old days---we've become a society too eager to allow ourselves to be easily distracted.

I understand how all this works, not a techno-phobe at all but won't allow something so foolish waste my time or distract me when there's a lot more to living than daily updating the world on my rather unspectacular life. The only real difference in me and those who post like it's life saving is I know what's NOT interesting---they seem to have lost sight of that.

I had a Facebook account---for about a day. Once I saw the BS it is along with all the pathetic nonsense people believe is interesting I tried to delete it. Seems at the time I couldn't so simply changed the profile name to something horrendously vulgar, removed or changed any required info to NOT reflect me personally and simply left it alone. Heck it might still be posted for all I know.

There will come a time in the not too distant future when all this "social media" will be passe, people re-discovering real life face-to-face conversation, visiting with friends--those with a body temp and not just a screen name---and the nonsense come to an end.

 

I hate it too, but I ain't holding my breath for this to happen......

 

You made it on the Internet! Haha

Sent from my Telegraph using IB AutoGroup

 

Big-Foot- Definately an interesting read. I just hit 30 in March and refuse to have a facebook. I don't need to spend all my time on there and would probably end up verbally abusing to many people plus that is what FTE and the other forums I am on are for. I will say if you haven't needed it yet you probably don't now.

 

Big-Foot:

I think this is the best post I have ever seen on ANY forum!!! I couldn't have said any of it any better!!!

At 66 I don't text, haven't before and sure ain't gonna start now!!! Hell I can't even see the onscreen keyboard, at least they tell me the keyboard is onscreen......

I bought a cell phone to use as a phone and that is enough to bug me to death, the only reason I take it with me when I go out is for an emergency, if one happens I don't want to have to hunt a phone or ask a stranger to use their phone to call for help...

Thanks for posting this, at least I don't feel so alone now......

 

I'm 31 and am typing this on my so called smart phone that's very handy to look up parts on or look for advice for fixing things but if I want to talk I prefer to do it with a real person. For what its worth I'd rather talk to a 60+ year old than someone my age or younger, you can learn so much more and you don't have to listen to app/internet crap.

 

I have a FB account and I visit it twice daily. I'm interested in seeing pics of my kids and grandkids and other friends and relatives.

I have a very small friend list which I've paired down purposely over the years so as to avoid political discussions and other BS.

I post very little about myself as I find myself to be quite unextraordinary.

 

the best tool is a tool that is used correctly

 

I might add that I have seen two divorces within my community of friends which could both be attributed to old flames looking each other up on Facebook. Not that the marriages would have survived anyway, but one of them was a thirty year marriage with children and grand children - the other a ten year marriage with children involved..
While my life has basically been interesting to me, I don't relish the idea of sharing my every thought and action on the internet.
I do, however, partake in forums such as these where there is a certain degree of anonymity and shared interests..
Glad that you've found the post humorous..

 

For the most part, the only folks who 'hate' or talk crap about FB are the folks who never tried it (i.e. the 'I'm not doing that crap' crowd).

You're just connecting is all (I'm not on Twitter....just not interested). Some is silly. Some is funny. Some is pretty cool. Just like Life.

 

No............I'm really NOT interested in what other people are doing, saying on FB..........One look at the drivel on my wife's FB thing, was quite enough for me.

 

Not even close to being partially correct, with all due respect! I hate and talk crap about facebook because like I said earlier its nothing more than a pathetic waste of time, has not value to me and sadly represents to a degree how disconnected we're becoming as a society. Add in the huge and growing number of bad things directly attributed to participation in or exploitation of Facebook members and the case against it grows larger every day.

Yes Facebook had the potential to be a great tool but the notion that its truly a social experience in the classic definition of "social" is pure BS, IMHO anyway. Some pathetic or sadly unfortunate members truly believe they have a vibrant, active and meaningful social life due their experience and/or participation there. One of the huge downsides there is they tend to retreat into their computers rather than get out and participate in the real world.

Toss in the absolutely stupid over reactions and misconceptions involved people relate about a demise of an otherwise previously strong relationship and you've got the base of the problem Facebook is. Sure its not Facebook's fault people can't distinguish real from virtual, that they're prone to act so irrationally without a real conversation with another person but BEFORE Facebook we had almost nothing like this as a society.

Then we have those who believe they've become demi-celebrities in the Faceebook world, posting mundane updates about nothing as though the rest of the world is waiting for news of their life. While this speaks more to our society's disconnection from reality sadly its what most of Facebook really is. Those quick to say Facebook haters don't get it typically fail to understand not everyone needs or wants what it offers.

AND THEN we have that corps of sheeple how simply don't understand how pervasive Facebook is when they jump in wholeheartedly and become nothing more than revenue streams for those willing to pay to know a member's internet activity. With all the concern of the NSA's snooping very few understand, accept or even acknowledge Facebook and its customers know far far far more about a member than the NSA ever could. I wonder who many Facebook members really understand just how deep all this goes? I also wonder how much activity about the NSA was part of the "Facebook conversation" while at the same time exposing themselves to more and more information gathering that was then sold to advertisers? Oh, the irony huh?

Great case in point---to the thinking, feeling and eager to live life outside a computer environment its easy to see its simply an exercise in a way to waste time, energy and brain matter on booorrrrrrrrrrring stuff, no offense to the wife OldJunk!

 

facebook or any other internet site is what you let it be.
for me it is a way to keep in touch with people i rarely see because they are no longer in my community. my life does not revolve around it, and i usually only log on in the am and at might after checking e-mail and FTE. but there are times i go 2-3 days without logging on.

 

OK (shrug)

No two persons FB accounts are the same. YOUR drivel might be entirely different from your wife's drivel. And you can easily control drivel in any event.