On the outside, looking in
Like most Rusters I know – whilst in the cause of ‘staying relevant’ I deny it is a foreign land to me when challenged by my juniors – my depth of understanding and indeed use of the manifold intricacies of social media are minuscule.
In fact, bar a brief flirtation with (1) Twitter in response to the urgings of my social circle (back in the days when it was “the new latest thing”) that ended abruptly after a fortnight when I realised that to all intents and purposes the only person to whom I was tweeting was myself, and (2) my current (shallow end only, and wearing both a rubber ring and arm bands) splashing about in the metaphorical swimming pool that is WhatsApp … a version of texting via which if you wish you can also send pictures and/or videos (and, I’m told, also make video telephone calls though I’ve never attempted this) … the truth is that I am effectively ‘modern-means-of-communication-illiterate’.
I even acknowledge that, in this state, I am probably in a senior citizen minority – some contemporaries of my acquaintance now seem to spend as much of their existence ‘chatting’ online as any spotty teenager – but I don’t care.
For me, it comes with the territory of old age. My way of dealing with the world is to accept that, whether I like it or not, I’m ‘of my own era’ (just as all generations after mine will become in due course) and refuse to worry about it.
Just as – over the last fifteen years – I have gradually given up fighting the ravages of time and instead adopted an approach of accepting my increasing limitations and managing them.
And before anyone asks or suggests, I don’t regard this attitude as defeatist or negative in the slightest.
It’s less hassle – both physically and mentally – for starters … and that’s good enough for me!
After the above little prologue, I now come to my purpose de jour – contrary to what has gone before as it may appear – which is to provide readers a link to a piece by Katie Weston (on a new ‘social media facility’ which is currently doing the rounds with sometimes hilarious results) that features today upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL
