No generation gaps or digital divide: Family gathers around Facebook
Some people complain about having their parents on Facebook. The Symons family sees things differently, as not only are parents part of the social networking site, but grandpa is there, too.
The family has five generations updating their status and sharing slices of their lives on Facebook, including a 96-year-old grandfather who lives in Los Angeles. Kim Symons of Las Vegas said Leonard Witkower, the grandpa, joined Facebook recently.
"We've had him on a computer for years," Symons said. "He started on AOL (America Online) five or six years ago and we've had him on IMs (instant messenger) on AOL. Grandpa has a caretaker that helps him a little bit, but he does most of it himself.
"I don't know that many people who have five generations of family alive, yet alone online," he said.
The five generations include grandpa; parents (mom in Torrance, Calif., and dad in Santa Fe, N.M.); Symons' own generation (including his sister and "a bunch of cousins"); nieces and nephews; and a grandnephew who is 17 and living in Apple Valley, Calif.
(I'm not using the names of other Symons family members to protect their privacy.)
"I IM with my sister all the time," Symons said. "She's in North Carolina and we keep in touch more that way than any other way. It's kind of nice, too, with five generations on Facebook. There are cousins that really didn't keep in touch that much aside from the occasional holidays. With Facebook we can keep in touch every day. It's made the family closer."
Symons said Witkower will turn 97 on May 10, and bets that Witkower is the oldest person with a Facebook profile. If you know of anyone older, shoot me an e-mail and I'll share it here or on my blog (www.lvrj.com/blogs/onlineguy).
Reader Emmy Delacruz shared her Facebook story: "I am 63 and love Facebook. I had previously relied on Classmates.com to find and keep in touch with old friends, but Facebook makes it much easier.
"I have already found six old friends and reconnected. I can post photos in albums and my friends can see them so I don't have to e-mail multiple times. If a family member gets sick it only takes a minute to post for all to know -- no more making 50 phone calls.
"There are drawbacks, of course, but you find out soon enough that you can see less from those who are habitual posters and you really don't care if they are now eating their breakfast. A new frontier for all of us and with the time to learn."
Not all families share the Symons philosophy, as Jennifer Dean writes: "I have gotten in touch with an old high school friend recently on Facebook (we are 35 and 36). She has an 18-year-old who is also on Facebook, but refuses to be her friend because he thinks she'll stalk him."
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