‘I’m back in touch with people’
ABOUT two years ago Co Down woman Hilary Glenn set up a Facebook profile and received her first friend request.
Now, she is connected with 108 online friends and logs on on a daily basis, posting photographs and status updates with fervour.
“I got into Facebook through a friend a couple of years ago and it has grown,” says the 65-year-old, who lives outside Dromore.
“I have made contact with people I had lost touch with, and also use it to keep in touch with family and friends. I also use it to keep myself informed about things I am interested in such as the RSPB, National Trust, and various other organisations.
“I am involved with the Reminiscence Network Northern Ireland and Lisburn Talking Newspaper. I am involved in a lot of gardening groups so it is useful to keep in touch that way.”
Having been a user of the internet for over a decade, Hilary says she would have taken advantage of it quite a lot anyway before she joined Facebook, for “general research”, booking holidays and keeping up to date with the latest news in the world of gardening, which she has a passion for.
She even completed her European Computer Driving License in work before she retired.
But she admits: “I was nervous when I started learning the computer. I absolutely hated it in the beginning.”
To her satisfaction, when she signed up to Facebook she discovered that it was very user-friendly.
“I found it very easy, I had no bother with it at all. I upload photographs of our garden and holidays - and of our cats.”
Hilary adds that she generally refrains from posting negative status updates - “I know some people use it to have a rant, I wouldn’t be doing that sort of thing” - instead preferring to recommend books she has read and so on.
“I used to be a librarian you see,” she adds.
She particularly enjoys getting back in touch with people she has not seen or spoken to in years.
“I have connected with somebody in Australia whom I knew when I was at Queen’s, and she had gone to the same school as me. She lives in Sydney now.
“She’s planning to come back to Northern Ireland during the summer so I’m hoping to meet up with her. I’ve been able to send a book about the school out to her.”
Hilary thinks that one reason some older people are reluctant to join the popular site is because of fears of their privacy somehow being invaded.
But she says she has never “encountered any problems” with this issue.
“If there was anybody I wasn’t sure about or didn’t want to be involved with I just didn’t accept them as a friend.”
However, for now anyway, Hilary has no plans to expand her portfolio of social networking site membership by signing up to Twitter.
“My life’s busy enough!” she adds.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Belfast
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
