My mother and stepfather are snowbirds, splitting time between their home in Connecticut and their winter home here in Florida. They are experienced using a computer, but like others their age, they do have some difficulty at times. For example, I explained in detail to my mother this past spring how to attach photos to her email so she could share photos with her friends. I worked with her for 10 minutes, and she caught on. Several weeks ago, I repeated the process again. I indulged in my usual grumbling about having already showed her, but I explained the process again. She did in fact remember most of the method, but couldn’t remember a step or two. Hopefully, by the time they go back up north, she’ll have it down. It’s much harder to explain it over the phone.
Revisiting this experience made me think about how easy it’s become to share information. The maturation of email and social networking sites have contributed to making it easier to share information. My mother is an avid user of Facebook, and in many ways is more proficient than I am at using some of the site’s features. I am daily getting invitations to participate in games like Family Feud, responding to comments on my status, and viewing pictures on her page.

She also has become proficient at texting. She recently upgraded her cell phone to a “texting” phone. She now has a phone with a slide out full keyboard. Texting has replaced actual phone conversation as our main form of communication. On the whole, I enjoy communicating with her this way, and look forward to the ability to stay in closer contact more often. Now that I have a family, it’s more important than ever to stay in touch, and the Internet and its attendant technologies make it easier to do so. Here’s to more advances in data sharing!