I had brought my laptop to show Gram some of the 4 billion or so pictures of Riley, the family at Disney, where I work and so on. Gram watched all of these marveling at the color, clarity and size of the pictures. She then asked if there was anything else on the computer. I said that yes, all my work files, letters, some movies, and an internet connection. My grandmother asked if she could see Facebook. So I poached someone’s wireless and went on line. I showed her email, and shopping and then my Facebook page. She read some of the wall posts, looked at my profile and the ads on the right. She asked some questions about what you could find out about people, things you could see and what the ads were for. I went to my profile which shows whatever you want people to know about you. I also showed her Farmville and some of the other games you could play .
After looking at all of the posts on my wall, she turned to me and asked, “What’s the big deal?”and “Do people do this all day long?” I had to say well, some people do. She just shook her head. I have to admit that I also showed her Twitter. Needless to say she was even less impressed.
I guess that my Grandmother will not be embracing the new media. At 92 she thinks that letters and phone calls work just fine and she is not in that much of a hurry for anything. I have to admit that I like writing letters and that I have some of the best conversations on the phone with her during my 2 hour commute. Sometimes it takes longer than 160 or 140 characters to get your point across.
So I am sorry Mr. Zuckerberg, you’ll have to keep working on Facebook, cause my Grandmother was not impressed.
