I've never before had the problem of people taking me too seriously. Now, I think, that may be exactly the case. There may be people in Cyberland who believe I am the Grinch in disguise; an anti-young-love, non-emotional Vulcan who likes to throw cold water on the flames of love. Nothing could be further from the truth. I find young love, endearing comments and adoring doe-eye looks refreshing. I see these as signs that our younger generation is fighting off the increasing pressure to reduce relationships to convenient partnerships.
I believe this misunderstanding comes partially from the failure to appreciate my brand of humor. I have a natural ability to spot chinks in other people's armor and a very hard-to-control desire to take shots at those chinks. And, to be truthful, as long as I continue to get laughs I'll continue to take the shots. I do believe my sense of propriety has improved with age, though. I often choke down some pretty funny stuff before it gets a chance to exit my mouth because I have sensed a vulnerability I know I should respect. But I also know I sometimes misjudge situations. Humor is a difficult skill, and written humor is even more difficult due to the lack of inflection, emphases, facial expression, volume and other subtleties of body language.
The other contributing factor to a possible misunderstanding is the chance that people have overlooked the "future" aspect of the article. I haven't yet encountered any communication that has made me blush, wish I hadn't read it or otherwise made me feel so uncomfortable that I stopped reading it. I was letting my imagination make a trip into one possible future.
I have other ideas about how this social networking phenomenon could evolve. For instance, what if all comments had to be filtered through generational and parental filters, or even translators? New, yet-to-be-invented DNA testing instruments would be required before any comments could be posted, and parents' and grandparents' comments would be evaluated by a special program and tweaked so as not to cause any embarrassment to the young person to whose wall the comment was being posted. It would look something like this: Young woman posts: "Great time at the beach yesterday!" Father comments: "Hey, Snookles, I remember the first time we took you to the beach. You ripped off your bathing suit and ran naked up and down the shoreline. I've attached a photo." What actually gets posted: "Glad for you" (no photo).
Another possible change would be aimed at keeping old folks, who I like to refer to as wobblies, from making comments about things about which they know absolutely nothing. I don't know if the DNA testing would work for this or if something else would have to be invented to detect old genes, white hair and out-of-touch social awareness. I envision this conversation: Young man posts: "Beach yestr w/BGF. alt 6y girls. 1 w/BOBFOC near us. deets l8r. psos." Old guy comments: "Glad you had a good time at the beach with your big green floaties. Good idea to have brought along those alternate girls. I'm glad to hear Bob was there. He needs a little sun. Were there mosquitoes out? You have to be careful not to use too much of that Deet 18 rated stuff. Glad it was positive for you." What actually gets posted: OFN0 (Old fart knows nothing).
Maybe everyone over 60 could be kept completely off fb by providing an alternative like Kissyfacebook. This one would be Wrinklefacebook. As with kfb, a whole new line of products could be developed for marketing: huge keyboards like those old-guy TV remotes, slower internet connections so they don't get too confused and automatic photo enhancers that make them look 20 years younger in their profile pictures (so they don't have to use a photo that is 20 years old with telltale hair styles and ancient clothing).
Remember, I came up with this idea first. I expect royalties when Facebook launches this. I saw Social Network.
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