Nobody in this thread has equated age with technological ineptitude. We’re just complaining about old people who happen to be technologically inept or, if you prefer, technologically inept people who happen to be old.
I think you are in fact equating age with technological ineptitude. Your last sentence suggests that you don’t believe there are any technologically inept people who are not old. And somehow having someone say “they’ll all die off in the next couple of decades” doesn’t make me feel very valued, actually.
No, it suggests they aren’t the topic of discussion.
So you’re gonna live forever, maybe?
My 83-year-old mom is quite adept on the computer.
My 50-year-old neighbor, on the other hand, barely touches her computer–her husband, pushing 60, won’t go near it at all–and she only uses one at work because she has to. She’s stunned that I actually buy stuff (!) online (“What if all your information gets stolen?”).
And I’ve got a 45-year-old friend who refuses to sign up for direct deposit payments at work (“What if it doesn’t go through?”). In the meantime, she puts her paychecks on top of her TV in her cluttered house, and once complained that a check flew out of her hand in a strong wind when she was taking it into the bank.
I find the latter two somewhat amusing.
She’s right not to. Your data is publically available easily searchable the privacy options don’t mean that much and they sell a lot of the data.
It’s not luddite nonsense to not trust Facebook.
They were, when automobiles were new.
There is a difference between good reasons for doing something and bad reasons for doing something. The person mentioned in the OP had a bad reason.
I’m telling you all now that if I live to be a thousand, I will never ever allow a direct interface to my brain. I don’t care if I have to live in a zoo as the last specimen of Humanity 1.0.
I’m hyper sensitive about being old; I don’t like being old and sometimes I take offense where none is intended. I’m sorry I said what I did.
I am a little curious. I always hear about how my data is going to be sold or stolen. Maybe I just don’t understand the threat. Let’s say that Facebook sells my data. Then what? With my spam filters, I have no idea how much spam I don’t see. I hardly ever get any. Is this additional junk mail to my house? Pop ups that I don’t see because they’re blocked? What happens? What is my worry?
I am being sincere here. I’ve had so many people caution me about being too loose and carefree on the internet, yet in 15 years, I’ve never had a bad consequence. Is there honestly something I’m missing? Am I just lucky?
lolagranola:
So, until someone who knows what they’re talking about shows up, I’ll fill in.
There was this article from August 14, 2007 - Facebook users are easy targets for Identity theft. Here’s another article by the same author from April 30th, 2009 - How can you handle risks that come with social networking?
The message of these articles is that some people are posting too much personal information on social networking websites.
In general, Facebook is relatively safe - however, if your friend’s Facebook page gets hacked, it gives the hacker access to all the information that you have posted. Hacking Facebook accounts can be as easy as an e-mail address and and 8 character alpha-numeric password. (It could even be as easy as someone forgetting to fully log out and clear the cache/cookies/history in an internet cafe.) What that information is depends on you, but for many people, it could include their e-mail address, cell phone number, home address, information about family members, etc.
My sister and brother in law were hacked earlier this year - my brother in law’s hacker was spreading spam links which may have been earning the hacker a couple of cents per clicked link. No big deal, who cares? Don’t click a link you’re not sure about. My sister’s hacker had a very clever link which looked like a Facebook login page and asked for your Facebook user name and password. I didn’t fall for it, but it was very plausible looking and probably garnered a few more hits for that hacker.
A scam that has gone around this year has been for a hacker to post a distress message on Facebook - “I’ve been mugged/lost my wallet/been in an accident, and I need you to wire $100 to me at (somewhere the hacker can get it) …” Remember, the story doesn’t have to be ironclad, just plausible enough to play on the sympathies of a friend. And even if it only works .1% of the time, that’s $100 in the hacker’s pocket.
So, I’m not arguing against using Facebook. (And yes, the ‘Grandma’ in the OP’s video doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Sadly, that hasn’t seemed to stop her.) I am pointing out that it isn’t as secure as it might seem to be, and you may not want to post anything on there that couldn’t be found in the phone book.
Aw, and here I thought we’d get to take this to the Pit. 
Don’t worry about it. I can get a little hypersensitive to people who give age and the opinions of the aged undue weight, especially if it means they denigrate change without an actually good reason. This gets especially frustrating when they ignore good reasons to focus on the fact it’s new, or that some old person somewhere doesn’t like it because they don’t understand it. Nobody seems to care how many young people share the same misinformed opinion, but in the minds of some it carries weight the moment it’s voiced by someone they consider old.
This thread is a perfect example: There are genuine privacy concerns associated with Facebook and similar sites, but the early posts in this thread ignored them because some technically inept people who happen to be old don’t understand it and therefore suffer odd delusions about it.
Thanks. I guess I just can’t imagine who would want to hack my identity. If someone took mine, maybe I could trade up… Honestly, I couldn’t buy a loaf of bread with my credit rating.
I don’t use public computers. I don’t store more than I want to share on Facebook, or any other site. I’ve never clicked on a link in an email.
I guess I’ll just continue my fast and loose lifestyle, and continue to be warned by people who are convinced that a knife wielding manic lies just behind my monitor, and one false click, I’m a goner.