For some learning how to use technology such as Facebook comes easy even if they did not grow up with it. They had to learn through trial and error how it worked. Nadine is one of those people. She is a 63 year old woman that learned how to use a computer late in life but succeeded none the less. She uses Facebook mostly because it helps her keep in contact with relatives from around the country. She has many relatives that she can really only contact through Facebook as they live far away and lead busy lives.
It has helped her stay in touch with them when their lives get busy and they cannot call on the phone as much as she would like. She likes to be informed about what is going on in their lives just as any relative would want. Before Facebook she would call or write letters to communicate but sometimes those means are not the best. They were slow and inconvenient at times so her family did not talk to her as much. This is a trend I am seeing with the older generation. All they want is to know what is happening in the lives of those they love but technology has made that both easier and yet less personal. Oftentimes they find things out simply by a post someone made but that was meant for all of their friends not just that person. In a way it is like discovering something secondhand. To write a letter or make a phone call is personal, it means that person wanted you to know and wanted to tell you. While with Facebook people post things that everyone can see and so you are just one of the masses. It is less personal but if it keeps Nadine in the loop she does not mind.
Nadine loves Facebook, she goes on it about once a day just so she does not miss anything. She can see babies grow into small children, she can see announcements made by nieces and nephews, and she can see her great uncle who has dementia. As she said in the interview that we did “You can share the good times, but you can also share the bad times.” This is an accurate statement for Facebook. Facebook was meant to help people connect and that goal has been reached and far exceeded.
Nadine has kept to the traditional use of Facebook though. She only wants to know what is happening in her family’s lives and let them know what is happening in hers. Earlier this year Nadine had a fall that had her in the hospital for quite a while and she used Facebook to let them know how she was doing. She liked that they were able to send good wishes from far away while she was in the hospital and that even though anastrozole 1mg pills downsides they could not come visit her they were still thinking of her. This was also how she got people to take care of her cat and house while she was away.
Not only does Facebook keep her connected during the day but it also keeps her occupied at night. Often she is unable to go to sleep easily and so she goes on Facebook to keep herself entertained. There are a lot of things on Facebook to keep her entertained but most of the time she messages questions to people because she knows that they will answer her when they get on next. She has learned a lot about Facebook over the years but there were still some simple things she wanted me to teach her.
One of those things was possibly the most simple of them all, how to copy and paste. To a millennial it seems like second nature to know how to do this but for some it is something that eludes them. I took a few minutes to show her how to copy and paste on Facebook and then I wrote it down for her just so that she has a reference in case she forgets. I also taught her how to make more defined searches on Facebook so that she could better see things from specific people.
Most of the time I had with her we simply talked about her time of Facebook and how she uses it to the best of her ability. It was wonderful to just sit down as talk with her about why she loves Facebook. She acknowledges that it can take away some of the human element but told me that “I think there are so many positives that it kind of outweighs the negatives.” That is something that speaks volumes to just how Facebook has impacted her life. It has impacted many lives and kept families better connected in this ever changing, technological world we live in.
