I'm Too New To Be Addicted To Facebook

Facebook is definitely not drug to me. At this point of my life, I like my bottle of Advil more than Facebook, because Advil at least gives me relief from my migraines.  But Facebook helps me nothing, neither is it giving me happiness.  May be I'm still too new to find happiness on Facebook.  I'm not afraid of wasting time at my current age.  Thank god I had lived a full real life before signing up with Facebook.

Will You Give Facebook Your Birthday?

One of my reasons for not signing up for a Facebook A/C all these years is because Facebook asks for the birthday of the registrant. Seriously? Why does anyone want to give his / her date of birth to just sign up with an online social website for casual fun? This was a big turn off for me when my kids told me about Facebook back in 2005. No, I don’t need Facebook to celebrate my birthday and reminds me that I’m closer to death as the year goes by. I don’t need my kids and friends to celebrate my birthday either. I have hated to be reminded of my birthday since I turned 21 many decades ago. Back then 21 sounded quite mature to me because I was only 1 year short from the last prime year of Chinese beauty. There is a Chinese saying, “There is no ugly woman in the 18-22 age group.” Now that I’m way over 65, I of course dread about celebrating my birthday even more than when I was 21. So why should I give Facebook my birthday? I don’t even give my birthday to my doctors. Where I live, I’m required to only give my doctors just my age. Why is Facebook so overreaching? Why does it want so much of my personal information? This is one thing I don’t understand why Facebook is so attractive to people. But after so many years of being hesitant about giving Facebook my birthday, I finally gave in and signed up for an account. 

There are many security experts who advise people to not use their real birthdays to sign up with Facebook. But the problem with this is, Facebook every now and then locks up people’s accounts and demands them to submit government issued IDs to unlock. When that happens, your birthday on your Facebook account needs to match with that on your ID, or your account will be forever locked and you won’t have access to your family there or the photos you uploaded.

There is always risk in everything we do, even when we use a free service.  So, whether you want to take the risk of being locked out of your Facebook account or being an identify theft victim during a data breach, determines whether you want to give Facebook your real birthday or a fake birthday. The choice is always yours.

I Am On Facebook For The First Time In My 70-Year Old Life

Time flies, it seems like yesterday when I was 20 years old living in an era when I didn't have my own phone, and every time when I had to make a call, I had to go to my neighbor's little rice shop to borrow his phone..... Yes, back then, nobody could call me for anything, even for emergency. I had no phone number and I had no phone.  Back then, I never imagined  I would have one of the smartest phones in my hand at 70 years old.

I had heard of Facebook for many years from my much younger and hipper siblings and kids.  I had never understood the point of being on there.  But I'm open-minded to learn about what the point is, since my children tell me that my most favorite app "Whatsapp" is actually owned by "Facebook" that never got my interest.  So recently when my kids finally got the time to help me, I signed up.  

I'm also new to Blogging, by the way...  I'm still trying to figure things out, with the help of my children.  I'm excited about what I can discover in social media, like learning new things and making new friends. If you want to make friends with me on Facebook, please fill out the contact form on the right sidebar, and I will try send you a "Friend Request", which is a Facebook function that I'm still learning about.