HARRISON COUNTY, MS (WLOX) -
How do you feel about all the technology available today? Things like Twitter, Facebook and smart phones? The experts say it is a generational thing, but we decided to do our own research.
First, we stopped by an exercise class for senior citizens in Biloxi. That's where we found Doe Gaudet and some of her fellow seniors working out. They were kind enough to stop for a moment and let us ask a few questions.
We asked Doe, if she is into tweeting? Her answer came as a bit of a surprise.
"I don't tweet," she said with a twinkle in her eye, but she did confess to being into texting.
Doe said she started doing it so she could communicate with her grandchildren.
We also spoke with Bernice Garrison at that same exercise class. Bernice is an active 91-year-old, but when asked if she tweets, her answer was precious.
"I have no idea what you are talking about. I have no idea what that is," Mrs. Garrison said.
Our day also included a stop at Gulfport High. As you might expect, their answers to the same questions we posed to the senior citizens, were quite different.
Before we even started the formal interview, they were talking about tweeting and tagging one another. They even taught me a new term.
"It is called creeping," 11th grader Haley Schultz said. " When you are bored, you just take out your phone and on Facebook, you scroll and you can creep on their pictures, even if you don't know them you can see what they are doing."
Then, there is also something called Facebook friends. But, we were curious, when is a friend really not a friend?
That's when junior Taylor Reeves said she has more than 1,000 friends on Facebook. But, when pressed, she admitted she really doesn't know many of them. In fact, most of her "friends" are people she has never met.
We were wondering that with all this technology, whatever happened to writing a letter to somebody? That question drew a lot of chuckles from the Gulfport High students. One student, 11th grader Deauntria Stubbs, even told us she doesn't think she has ever written a letter to anybody.
James and Margaret Long have certainly written many a letter. They are senior citizens who live in Ocean Springs. We spotted the friendly couple enjoying a bite to eat at Edgewater Mall. They confess to being behind the times, and they would have it no other way.
James and Margaret even confessed that they don't have a smart phone. In fact, their phone is still a land line. The couple also said that is all they need, and all they want.
We also had an opportunity to spoke with Joe Peters at the mall. Joe is a WWII veteran, who gets together nearly every day with some friends at the mall.
Joe told us he was not even sure if it was Facebook or "spacebook," that all the young people spend so much time on. We had to tell Joe that as far as we know, there is no such thing as spacebook.
One of the other senior citizens sitting with Joe probably summed it up best. When asked if she bothers with all our modern day technology, she simply smiled and told us she had better things to do with her time.
So, one can only conclude that maybe all this love of technology, really is a generational thing.
A few interesting facts show just how popular Facebook is:
Facebook is the largest photo album in the world, with a staggering 800-million users. More than half of those users, log on at least once a day.
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