Evelyn and Doug were active in their retirement. They both spent a lot of time working for their community theater group, organizing fund-raisers, building sets, and selling tickets. As full as their life was, they missed their six grandchildren, who lived several states away. Their world changed when they joined Facebook; now they could see pictures of Ella’s junior prom and Kyle’s first efforts at t-ball. They could “like” a funny post from Andy and express sympathy when Allison came down with a stomach virus.
Although both Evelyn and Doug used the social media site, Evelyn, in particular, was a very active user. In fact, if anything, she might have been an “over liker.” Whenever she saw a post that mentioned one of her favorite merchants or products, she liked it. Whenever she saw a post from a relative or former coworker, regardless of what it was about, she liked it. And whenever she saw anything about one of her favorite plays or actors or songs,
she liked that, too.
In fact, the more she “liked,” the more she liked Facebook. Her news feed was filled with posts that were really interesting to her, and her social network expanded to include people she had never actually met but who shared a lot of common interests. Despite her expanding network, however, Evelyn remained nervous about fully using the site. She knew how to comment on posts and accept friend requests, of course, but she was still nervous about using the messenger function, or how to share a story, and she had absolutely no idea how to post a photograph or video. On the few occasions she had done any of these things, she had one of her grandkids sitting next to her showing her how to do it. Despite her best efforts to pay attention, the whole thing was just too nerve wracking for her, so she just chose not to do any of those things.
One day, one of her new Facebook friends, Rose, posted a story about the proposed federal budget, which was described as eliminating all funding to the arts. Rose was horrified by this possibility, and Evelyn quickly posted a comment supporting Rose’s assessment.
After that first story, it seemed like every day her friends were posting new stories about the budget cuts to the arts. Each story provided more details about the cuts, providing draconian estimates of the impact it would have on all aspects of the arts. Not only would the cuts eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, but the cuts also affected art education at all levels. The stories suggested that even kindergartners would no longer have finger paints or paste, and that nonprofit groups associated with the arts would lose their nonprofit status.
Evelyn was outraged! What was even more shocking was that the mainstream media was not reporting on any of it. “Typical,” Evelyn thought. “If it isn’t sports, weather, or people killing people, why would they bother covering it?”
One day, one of her friends posted information about an online petition. To join the petition, subscribers were directed to a web link; once they clicked on the link, they were asked to provide their name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. Evelyn completed it and hit “send,” grateful that she could add her voice against the senseless cuts.
Soon afterward, she noticed that her computer was not working very well. It was processing very slowly, and she was no longer able to connect to some of her favorite sites. In fact, she was having trouble connecting to Facebook!
Her world became much smaller for a time. She was stuck with her in-person friends because she could no longer follow and respond to her online friends. She was stuck reading the daily newspaper and watching the nightly news, which of course focused only on the positives of the proposed federal budget. It was 2 months before she saw Andy, her oldest grandchild. Andy started teasing her about taking a “social media break.”
“Grandma, I’m kinda offended that you aren’t writing ‘LOL’ on my very witty posts,” Andy said. “What, have you moved onto Instagram or Snapchat? Or is there a new social media platform for the geriatric set?”