Since 2008 I have chronicled my life on Facebook.
Thousands upon thousands of photos of my family,
friends, trips taken and life events exist on my page,
and I often think how lost I would be if it ceased to
exist. You can make photo books of your daily pages,
but at this point the cost of printing all of those
books out would be more than my mortgage.
Now I have older children of my own, I see them
on social media and I worry. They are savvy when
it comes to stranger danger, but some of those
strangers are very savvy with extracting information
regarding children they consider to be “prey.” I watch
their TikTok videos, but I don’t watch their SnapChat
… I let my oldest daughter mediate that for me, so I
don’t have a stroke.
Even I have succumbed to TikTok. Some evenings,
late at night, I scroll through with the pretense of
fi nding my twin daughters’ videos, but end up watching
hours of my favorite talking dog. I have subscribed
to several people I don’t even know, which is
unheard of on my Facebook. I don’t know what the
difference is, but there is one (talking animal videos, I
admit, is a huge weakness).
I recommend anyone over the age of 18 delve
into the world of social media … or at least dip a
toe. There is much to be learned, whether by taking
a virtual tour of a museum across the world or by
the endless lessons in human psychology you can
fi nd there.
Don’t let it frighten you, but be careful. Don’t let it
overtake your life, either. Just maybe throw a dash of
Facebook or Pinterest in with your daily enjoyment,
and you’ll be just fi ne.
A massive
Generation Gap,
through the eyes of Dean Laux
As an 87-year-old I am a representative of what Tom
Brokaw called “the Greatest Generation,” though
that is perhaps a mischaracterization. In reality we
were “the Luckiest Generation,” because we were
simply lucky enough, through no fault of our own, to
survive both the Great Depression of the1930s and
World War II.
Is there a gap or disconnect between my generation
and the Baby Boomers, Generation X
and the Millennials? Hell, yes. For example, my
wife (13 years younger than me) pays all her bills
online. I pay mine by check. Our granddaughters
literally do not know what a check is and how
one would use it. My eldest son has by his own
admission never been inside a bank. When my
wife and I go to the bank, she uses the ATM
machine outside. I race inside (make that shuffl e)
and go to a teller window to cash a check or
make a deposit. We make a race of it: Who will
get done fi rst? She wins 90 percent of the time.