I am on Facebook. It was a bit hard for my grandchildren at first to cope with the idea of becoming my buddies. But now they are getting used to the idea of me monitoring their behavior in cyber space. I have interfered only once. It was when one of them, who I have always considered a true gentleman, applied the ultimate foul word.

I absolutely had to reprimand him on his ‘wall to wall.’ I really don’t know if it had any impact on him. The future will tell.
Many people might think that Facebook is only for teenagers and college students, but the fact is that social networking is becoming more and more popular among older people. Being far away from children and grandchildren and friends for many months, it is very nice to be able to follow their activities on a daily basis and tell them what you’re up to. By the way, according to Daily Mail, a 102-year-old grandma is the oldest person on Facebook. This British cyber centenarian so far has only nine Facebook-friends, but hopes to rack up more buddies, since she ‘loves being online.’ This remarkable lady retired from her job at 73, and has a championship in Frisbee throwing for over 75’s.

Of course, there are many aspects of social networking I do not approve of. Much of what is written there is complete nonsense. This kind of online white noise risks to dull the brain, creating a society of disengaged communication. Checking phones for emails on Facebook messages while in company would once have been considered a faux pas but is now accepted behaviour. Social media is encouraging us to be perpetually multi-tasking and distracted, scanning and juggling for lots of things. Everything that is good comes in small portions, and this also applies to social networking. It can take a long time to wean yourself off addiction. Social media also entails a big risk for viruses and spams. US IT security company, Sopho’s social-security’ investigation reveals that criminals have increasingly focused attacks on social networking users in the last twelve months, with an explosion in the reports of spam and malware. The dramatic rise in attacks in the last year tells us that social networks and their millions of users have to do more to protect themselves from organized cyber-crime. It is important to use caution when you click on links and to know what you have posted about yourself.

Never trust that a message is really from whom it says it is from. Do not allow social networking services to scan your email address book. And do talk to your kids about the risks. And last but not least: get a good and reliable total security programme for your computer.

One grandchild just told me on Facebook that he finally threw the javelin over 60 m and another that she got an ‘excellent’ in a marketing exam. It has its points to be part of a social medium.

Now to the coming activities of Asociación Hispano-Nórdica:
Our first weekly meeting will take place on October 6th with mingling and exchanging news and views. The bar and the library will be open. Fiesta de Europa will take place on Saturday October 16th in the Majuelo park. Thursday walks will start on October 14th with an 8 km (easy) walk to Lobres. Gathering at the market place as usual. Welcome to our stand.