At first I wasn't interested in joining Facebook, but when my children went off to college, I found it was a great way to keep in touch with them. They chose a school about three hours away and couldn't get home often as they were involved in a sport. So, it forced me to learn how to text, Facebook, and skype in order to stay connected with them. Family is very important to us and was an excellent motivational tool to keep us connected. I must say though a good " old fashioned " phone call does everyone good as it is important to keep up on oral communication skills too.
Also, I have found that showing interest in how various social media devices work, bridges the generation gap at the work place. Where I work there is a big age difference among us. I have found I rely on the younger generation to teach me how to use these devices which in turn fosters working relationships.
Social media has been enjoyable to our family as it helps us stay in touch with siblings, nieces, nephews, grandchildren. I especially enjoy seeing the pictures too. This helps us stay close.
I enjoyed reading your post, in part, because I can relate. It has been through family, friends and coworkers that I have been brought up to speed with our modern devices for communication. I believe in learning something new as often as possible and this "technology thing" is certainly a heavy contributor. It has, however, sparked new interests for me in some of the devices on the market. It has also, most importantly, bridged gaps with the distance between family members and between coworkers, like you had mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that doing this all has given you something in common to discuss with your children. I think if more people of the older generations actually took the time to experience technological offers for themselves they would understand my generation a lot more and why we enjoy social media or the technological advantages that we have. It could also improve conversations with others as you mentioned with your kids which can overall affect your overall relationship with them. I also think that if others in my generation found a good balance between social media and other technolgy outlets that older people wouldn't have as bad of a view on it. I think both generations did there part we could all relate better when it comes to this type of topic.
ReplyDeleteI like your title it fits your post excellently. I can totally relate to keeping in contact with family and that it is very important. I also agree with how this technology forms a bridge between our generations. I also help others with the new technology even at work. I also had got my mom into texting and Facebook. I think she text more than I do now.
ReplyDeleteI love that you incorporated family into your reasoning for becoming familiar with texting, skyping, facebook, etc. In my opinion you did it for the right reasons, and left out the superficial reasons. You associated yourself and familiarized yourself in particular with these sites and forms of communication due to your family, and keeping in contact with your college bound children. I loved both your post and your title.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good read. I know many adults in your position, relying on our generation to "catch you up" with technology. It's nice that you took the initiative to learn all of these tools to keep in touch with your children while they were at college. That says a lot you as a parent and adult.
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