Jesh Foundation

Before leaving home, you check for emails, see what’s cooking on Twitter and open Facebook to find out if any friends invited you to an event or posted a comment on your wall. On your way for a Starbuck’s you get two cell calls and a text message comes through while waiting in line to pick up your latte. This is typical in today’s expanding social networking world that keeps us informed about people we may hardly know and falls short in delivering the joy experienced when human beings get together face-to-face.

As a pre-boomer growing up in a big city, there was still a small town closeness in the neighborhood where I lived. People knew each other on my block, the surrounding streets and along the shopping area not far away. True, most of these folks were only acquaintances. These were children from school, their parents, folks from church and people you kind of knew because they lived in the same house for years. This gave me a feeling of belonging as well as safety, although I didn’t really think about it at the time.

I use virtually all of the networking tools available today. But like most folks over 65, I use some of them on a limited basis. For me, the most useful one is email. My least favorite is texting. Maybe because the screen is too small and my fingers are too big, but I believe this form of communications is encouraging upcoming generations to use poor grammar, be lousy spellers and not be able to express themselves in an acceptable way – at least one that’s acceptable to New Seniors in general or me in particular.

Technology is here to stay. And social networking will use the tools and techniques that work for them as the never-ending stream of new products hits the marketplace. Chances are New Seniors will adapt to some of these, especially as the boomers start turning 65 beginning next year. Nonetheless, since most of us don’t need to incorporate high tech and new media into our daily lives, the New Seniors can be expected to stay with what’s comfortable for them. Being the first one to have the latest toy doesn’t matter anymore.

With all these tools at our disposal, it seems appropriate to think about the easier softer time when those of us born between 1930 and 1945 were kids. Back then many homes, even in a large metropolitan area, did not have phone service. If there was a phone in the house it was often on a party line, shared with several other families. The phone was used to make important calls or emergencies, not for extended conversations. And, as if to confirm this point, the single phone in the house was usually located in a corner of the dinning room or a nook in the downstairs hallway.

The mode of communications for many was by mail or personal contact at work, school, church or a social event. Funny thing is everyone seemed to arrange meetings, set dates and invite people to dinner with little difficulty. If something came up, the phone could be used for instant communications. This is not to suggest that we put the state of communications in reverse, but it would be refreshing if people took time to think about what they have to say before telling the world about it.