Emotions for Dummies

It's incredible how many of my "friends" have not registered even the smallest iota of compassion, phony or not, regarding my recent heart attack, yet never fail to to wish anyone and everyone a "Happy Birthday" by clicking that convenient button on their Facebook pages. And who cares? How much is a happy birthday worth, especially after sixty or seventy of them? It's not like you were going to have a bad one and then suddenly you had a happy one because people wished you would. It is 100% meaningless, which may account for its popularity.

Nevertheless, the custom of wishing people a happy birthday has fueled the rise of the billion-dollar Hallmark Card company to soaring heights and has also given me a great idea! New data from the Pew Center for Internet and American Life show that "Facebook’s strongest growth over the past year has come from users over the age of 65 as more older users sign onto the website to keep in touch with their friends, children and grandchildren." The survey found that 45 percent of American seniors who use the Internet are on Facebook.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/personal-finance/article370062/Facebook%E2%80%99s-strongest-growth-is-from-users-over-age-65-study-says.html#storylink=cpy

So, with the number of people over 75 using social media nearly doubling in the last year, perhaps more of those oh-so-clickable buttons are in order. Following are a few that might be useful and much appreciated by an ever-weakening demographic:

1. Your friend Andrea Rouda just had a heart attack! Click here to wish her a "speedy recovery."

2. Your friend Helen Brown's husband died yesterday! Click here to say, "I'm sorry for your loss."

3. Your friend Bob Benson just lost his wife! Click here to say, "She is in a better place now."

4. Your friend Jill Palmer lost both her legs to diabetes yesterday! Click here to say, "Hope you are up and around soon."

5. Your friend Jane Burke committed suicide last week! Click here to post your hope for her "finding everlasting peace" on her Memorial Page.

6. Your friend Mel Stern has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's! Click here to say how much you enjoyed your recent visit with him. (Visit not necessary.)

You get the point -- the possibilities are endless! Zuckerberg should get right on this.