With all this talk about social media, let’s not forget that as far back as smoke signals and tin cans, resourceful people have always found ways to connect and communicate. (For a great review of a recent and yet long-ago time–the nineties–check out this article .) One thing is different now: It’s easier–and cheaper–to keep in touch.
So why should anyone be surprised that “older” people have found their way to–gasp!–sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. They are using them the way they once wrote postcards or made the occasional phone call to an old army buddy. Online venues are great for rediscovering acquaintances from the long-lost past and meeting new people as well. And unless illness or geographic isolation stops them, research shows, they’re bringing those encounters into the real world as well.
Staying connected and involved are the keys to graceful aging–and that means stepping outside our inner circles. In fact, it’s the people we don’t know so well who are more likely to…
…Introduce us to a novel activity or experience. The people closest to us know what we know and often think the way we think. Make a new acquaintance or join a new group, and it opens a new door.
…Allow us to exercise a different persona. Our loved ones can finish our sentences for us, but consequential strangers wonder who we are. With them we can be a blank slate all over again. Members of the Red Hat Society, according to its founder, “don’t have to conform to an old image or explain that they are changing certain aspects of themselves.” Try that with your partner or a really close friend!
…Remind us that we are, indeed, part of something bigger. When you’re wielding a hammer as part of a Habitat crew or schmoozing with a old fraternity brother on Facebook, you’re connected to the greater mass of humanity.
