The Dangling Conversation

There's a debate underway in my household between my wife and I. I say "underway" because it hasn't quite reached the "raging" stage. If you want raging, my wife (a Francophone) and I (an Anglophone) from time to time (usually in a weak moment of my own making) slip into our number one discussion around why we don't speak more French at home - ergo - when am I, a former public servant who learned French at the expense of our gracious taxpayers and was technically rated bilingual (even though I hardly used it), going to improve my use of Canada's other language? This one never gets resolved, hence it's ongoing nature.


But the current debate is over a remark I casually made the other day. I'm no geek, but with a lot of time on my hands I surf the web, converse on Facebook and such and - I have to admit - "I'm nonamedufus and I'm a Twitterholic". In an epiphany-like moment I was struck by the apparent impact of social networking technology on our everyday lives and I said something to the effect that "Gee, do you ever stop and think that technology now defines us generationally more than age does?"


My point was that social networking technology crosses all ages from tweens to the blue rinse set. And, if you think about it, it kind of started with things like radio, followed by television, then colour television, the Internet, e-mails, Facebook and now Twitter. These things weren't confined to one age group but used by all.


The number of seniors who use Facebook, for example, continues to grow. Hell, they even have their own groups. The two I joined are called "I am too old for Facebook - But I Don't Care" and "Unlike 99.9% of the Facebook population, I was born in the 50s". But while Facebook wasn't invented by or intended for Senior Citizens, nevertheless its users cross all generations.


Now my wife's position in this discussion (notice I avoided the term "argument') is not contrary to mine. Rather it's tangential. (Now, you know why our arguments are ongoing - nobody ever remembers the original premise!) Her position is that social networking technology is really anti-social networking technology. Why? The advent of e-mail MySpace, Facebook, Twittering and texting has discouraged face-to-face discussion, chiefly, in addition to a deterioration of our youth's spelling abilities as they "txt" to their "bff"s and in many instances replaces accuracy with opinion.


All good points, with which I hasten to agree. But slightly off the mark from the original premise.


I think I'll e-mail her and let her know!