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Help! My 77 Year Old Mother Follows Me On Instagram
Not sure if I should follow or block her
Fourteen years ago, when Facebook was still in its infancy and the alt-right hadn’t quite worked out how best to capitalize on this novel digital contraption, my mum and I had a discussion about her getting on Facebook.
She said: “ heaven forbid that I should join you on that rubbish!”
One suspects that this view was shaped by my older siblings ratting me out to her on my online activities in the run up to the historic elections of November 2008.
I tried convincing her on the merits of joining, stating that Barack Obama had tapped into the infinite possibilities of FB, by putting it at the heart of his highly successful presidential campaign. She simply wasn’t interested.
But that was then and this is now.
These days, on the WhatsApp family group, she sends us all sorts from her Facebook page, giving us the latest in the world of misinformation, conspiracy theories, politics, economics and whatever else may catch her fancy.
And given that she looks after herself quite well, has all of her teeth and her mental acuity is as sharp as ever, I really shouldn’t be surprised that she is much better informed on the latest events in this anarchic and polarized world of ours…