By Willie Sawyers
Publisher
LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. —
A few months ago, I wrote about how I was a Neanderthal in social media circles because I didn't use Myspace, Twitter or Facebook.
When we decided the newspaper needed a Facebook page, I had to put up a page as well so I could monitor it. I've accumulated a few friends along the way, some even without bribery, and I post something about two or three times a week.
Now comes a report that Facebook may be on its way out. What? I finally join the party and it’s already over? That figures.
Usage reports from June show that Facebook only added about 320,000 new users. That would be great for most Web sites, but it's a bad sign for Facebook, which added 7.8 million new users in May — a drop of 96 percent.
Perhaps all the publicity surrounding Facebook’s privacy concerns has finally created a backlash. Or perhaps social media users have grown tired of the site, like they did with Myspace, and are awaiting the next new fad.
Personally, I find Facebook useful for connecting with friends I haven't heard from in years, like old classmates living in other states. It’s also handy to disseminate information to a large number of people at the same time.
But I am concerned about privacy and how much of my personal information Facebook is sharing with other entities. Users should also be careful about what they post, unless they want it to come back and haunt them 20 years from now.
I just wish I could figure out what the next new fad in social media was going to be. I could become the next Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, or Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, and be a zillionaire.
Unfortunately, my Neanderthal brain can't wrap itself around it.
•••
I may be a little ancient, but I do have the latest in smartphone technology. After waiting out the crazies who sucked up all the early supply, I slipped into Walmart quietly yesterday and secured a new iPhone 4.
It's a nice upgrade from my iPhone 3G with a brighter screen, smaller size, 5 megapixel camera and the ability to shoot video. Plus it can run multiple applications at the same time and is about three times faster.
I'm not concerned about reports of reception problems with the new iPhone, because they are easily fixed by buying a cheap case, which everyone should have anyway to protect their phone.
The $200 price to upgrade was cheap, considering that I sold my old iPhone 3G quickly for $100. I've got old cell phones all around the house, so it was nice to have one with resale value. iPhone 4 is well worth the money.
•••
I rely on my iPhone for many business and personal tasks. It keeps me in touch with the office through e-mails and texts. It keeps me up to date on news from around the world. It warns me of approaching thunderstorms on the golf course. It will even help me find my way when I am lost.
This all depends, of course, on decent cell phone reception. None of this magic can happen if the wireless signal is weak or spotty.
That’s exactly the problem I encountered last weekend on a four-day trip to Muscle Shoals, Ala., and nearby Florence to play golf at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.
I don’t know if it was because the area was primarily rural or because the course was located between the Wheeler and Wilson hydroelectric dams, but cell phone service was almost non-existent, even at the nice Marriott that we stayed at.
Imagine going four days with no bars on your cell phone. I could barely make a call, let alone check e-mail, surf the web or monitor my Facebook account.
I felt lost and disconnected, even for a Neanderthal.
