Here's one of the things I used to say: "I don't need to have my own Facebook page." It's cute how naive I was back then, isn't it?
A couple of years ago, my sister-in-law (already a Facebook veteran) convinced my husband and me that we should hop on the FB bandwagon, and she showed us how to set up an account. We put it in my husband's name and used it jointly; we really didn't go on Facebook that much anyway, and when we did it was mostly to do a quick check of our grown kids' pages, to see any new pictures they might have posted or whatever. I would sometimes leave a comment, and usually would add "XO Mom," just so that my boys would know which of their parents had sent it. Once, however, I saw a hilarious comment that one of son #4's college buddies had posted, so I told him how funny I thought he was (and that he'd made me LOL, of course), ending with my traditional smiley face. His reply to my comment began, "Mr. Pearl..." Oh no, I thought. If everyone thinks it's my husband who's sending out these comments, they don't make him sound very manly. (My husband, for the record, does not attach smiley faces or hearts to his comments.)
It was time to set up my own Facebook page...and a monster was created.
When I used to hear about people who were so addicted to Facebook that they gave it up for Lent, I thought, Wow, those people have a problem. Now, I have that problem. But I do have a lot more "friends" than I used to, which is nice.
Here's another thing I used to say: "I don't want or need an iPhone." Ha ha, it is to laugh!
Until this past Christmas, I was perfectly happy with my little pink flip phone--even though it took me about 3 hours to compose the simplest text to one of my sons. My husband had an iPad and an iPhone already, and he was a true believer by that point. But it would be a waste of money to get an iPhone for me, I assured him. He didn't listen and got me one for Christmas anyway. Let me just say it again: that guy is my hero. And come to find out, I did need an iPhone.
The great thing about the iPhone is that no matter where I am, I can do a quick e-mail check or look up some important factoid on the Internet. And guess what else I can do? I can log onto Facebook--way more often than is probably healthy--to see all the funny comments being posted by my sons, my nieces and nephews, and all of their various friends. (I hope that doesn't make me a Facebook stalker.) With an ever-present mini-computer at my fingertips, I've connected with high school friends with whom I've only had a Christmas card correspondence for the past couple of decades, and that has been a really fun off-shoot of joining the FB crowd. Texting is a breeze with my new iPhone, too (it only takes me 2 hours to compose one now, instead of 3), and so is sending photos, whether via text or e-mail.
And the picture quality I get with my phone--it's unbelievable! I used to carry a small photo album filled with hard copy pictures of my granddaughters in my purse; but now all of those precious photos are stored digitally on my magical little Apple device. When I want to show someone my "brag book," I just have to whip out my trusty iPhone.
Oh yeah, and I can also make actual phone calls with my iPhone. There's that, too. I used to pride myself on being the only dinosaur left who insisted on dialing phone numbers from memory, but now I'm speed-dialing from my "contacts" list like everyone else.
I don't even know who I am anymore. But I've definitely stopped kicking and screaming.
(Most of you are probably iPhone aficionados already and wonder why I've bothered to tell you all that it can do. Forgive me; it's just that I'm still such a n00b about all of this stuff. And btw: This ad was not paid for by Apple...but it should have been, don't you think? If you don't have an iPhone yet, I'm sure you want one now.)
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