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Seniors learn the ins and outs of social networking sites

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Photo by Kyle Bursaw

Allia Nelson, a UW-Whitewater student, explains to Dan Sable how to sign up for a Twitter account during a class offered by Seniors in the Park in Whitewater.

WHITEWATER — Dan Sable and Wilma Mattingly learned Tuesday that a lot can be said in 140 characters.

Seniors in the Park, the senior center in Whitewater, offered a class on Twitter, the micro-blogging and social-networking service.

"I knew I wanted to do a class on Facebook and Twitter," said Deb Weberpal, senior center coordinator. "They're just so popular."

The number of senior citizens joining the social-networking sites is growing, she said, and as more people rely on such services to communicate, it's important that senior citizens be given the opportunity to learn the basics.

Weberpal enlisted a college student to teach the classes—one on Twitter and one on Facebook. The goal was to introduce seniors to the technology and give them basic knowledge, she said.

The class Tuesday drew only two people—Mattingly, 73, who wanted to know what the "hullabaloo" was all about, and Sable, 75, who wanted to try posting tweets as an alternative to writing e-mails.

Allia Nelson, 27, a returning student at UW-Whitewater, was the teacher. She's been an avid user of social-networking sites, text messages and iPhone for a few years, but she only recently joined Twitter.

"I knew I was behind the times when NPR was talking about it, and they kept saying, 'You can tweet us at…'" she told the class.

Nelson fielded a handful of questions before showing participants the ropes.

They wanted to know why someone would want to join Twitter.

It's a way to meet and keep in touch with people—from family and friends to big-time celebrities and small-time authors, musicians and actors—and it's a way to read the latest news headlines, Nelson explained.

And they wanted to know the difference between Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter is life summed up in 140-character tweets. Facebook is life accented by direct messaging, pictures and videos and is better for keeping up with old friends. Twitter is more of a jumping-off point for conversations than Facebook, Nelson explained.

Then it was time to practice.

Sable and Nelson fumbled through creating a Twitter account, posting a tweet and finding people to follow. They preferred to watch Nelson deftly navigate from page to page but agreed to give things a try, even if it was a little overwhelming.

Sable searched for an author—an old friend from grade school—and now is a follower. Mattingly looked for her daughter and a friend but found neither. She now follows NPR news, at Nelson's recommendation.

Mattingly said she might try Twitter again, but she was more interested in learning about it rather than using it regularly.

"I was curious to know what it was, and now I know," she said. "It's kind of fun to keep up with the new technology."