Grandma's Travels and Thoughts

Forget the world. Forget the news. Just focus on yourself! We’ve all made those comments when someone’s taking off for a week’s escape from reality. And when your escape is for just 7 to 10 days, avoiding television, newspapers, and rumors of the outside world is actually possible.

When you’re going to be gone for months, however, you find your approach to keeping up with the world is different, especially when it comes to keeping up with friends and family and the news from back home.

I would like to say that I escape from all social media, but that would be a lie. For people our age (65+), social media is where we share the ups and downs of our lives, looking to friends for support with both the low and high points we have and had with our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

If you’re going to keep your social media presence, the two I’ve found most useful, especially for keeping up with events back home, are Facebook and Twitter. They can both be found with your internet browser and can be downloaded as apps for your phone.

While you might be out of sight and out of mind, knowing about the big spelling bee, the school play, or when the big sports rivalry takes place back home helps you message or call at the right time with the right words. For students, find their local school with an internet browser search and then examine the website for links you can subscribe to. There will usually be either a Facebook and/or a Twitter link (they’ll look like little symbols) for the school in general. Click and follow all of them, as the same information is not always shared equally. I’ve found in Iowa that Twitter is used more than Facebook by coaches and activity directors, so having a Twitter account is important! Even most pre-schools now have an online presence and post photos of the students participating in activities. It’s so fun to call a 4 year old and ask them about an activity they were doing in school that day!!

Many athletic groups and other organizations within schools have their own Facebook or Twitter groups that you can subscribe to also. From the general school website, look for tabs that say Activities, Athletics, Calendar, Drama, Events, Organizations, etc. Search through until you find the sport or club your loved one participates in and open that link. Often you’ll find the schedule of activities for the year there, so you can send them an “You’ll be great!” message before big events. You may find a roster with names and even photos of all the participants. Since COVID, more schools now have video links where you can view some events right on your computer. Some schools will have a link for the Twitter or Facebook feed for that specific school group, which you’ll also want to join. That’s the best way to see photos, know if they got specific accolades from the coach, if they’re involved in a fundraiser you want to help out with, or if the school or a parent is going to be live streaming their next event. Plus parents really appreciate not having to constantly message you about every event that is coming up in their busy lives.

Another option is to actually start within your Facebook site and do a search (click on the magnifying glass icon) for the name of the school. Make sure you include the town and state in your search or you may find yourself following a school several states away! You’ll likely see multiple entries on the page, so choose one of them and click on the name of the school at the top and you’ll go to that school’s Facebook page. There you can “Like” the page (click on the thumbs up icon) so you will continue to get updates in your news feed. There often is a section called “Related Searches” where you may find links to Facebook pages for specific school groups and sports as well. Click and “Like” the page to follow them.

For local news of your community, you have many digital options, and your local paper would truly appreciate your support of them with a digital paper subscription. Again, use your internet browser to find the local paper you want to follow. Be careful, as many towns have papers with the same name. I’ve mistakenly subscribed to a Colorado “Gazette” twice now! Once you are on their website, look for the subscribe button and click on it. Most papers will then have multiple options for you, from only a printed paper version, a printed plus a digital version, or only a digital version that you can access through their website or with an app you can download on your phone. You may find that you can switch from a printed version to a digital version for the months you are gone. While on their website, also look for the little Facebook and Twitter icons. If you click on one of these, you’ll find yourself at the paper’s page for that social media. There you can indicate you want to follow the paper and you will then see postings from the paper in your social media feed as well.

The only disadvantage to following the news from home with social media is the numerous junk memes full of inaccurate and false information you are then subjected to. As a pharmacist, I cannot just scroll past false information, believing I have a professional duty to warn people, sometimes with just a “Pseudoscience” post while other times spending way too much time on a reasoned medical explanation that likely nobody reads. The easier approach is for me not to see it. So either unfollow the person who does those posts, or if the posts are usually memes or articles they shared, unfollow the original poster. You can do this by clicking on the three little dots in the upper right hand corner of the post and then select who you want to unfollow. I’ve found that often a friend uses the same sources for repeated memes and articles, so by unfollowing the sources, you can still see the family and friend postings while avoiding the frustrating health misinformation.

Well, time to go check on what’s happening in my family’s world!!