My dad is finally on Twitter!  A few months ago I explained the whole social media thing to him and suggested that he at least get on LinkedIn given that he’s in sales.  So yesterday he tells me he’s on Twitter and that he’s following me.  I didn’t have time to check it yesterday or follow him back but tonight I was talking to him on the phone and he mentions that he’s connected to two of my cousins via Twitter.  I was somewhat surprised since I follow one of them on Twitter but I didn’t know the other one was on.  I start asking him more questions and next thing you know, he’s totally confused. He doesn’t know if he was communicating with my cousins on Twitter or Facebook (he kept saying he was emailing them). I ask if he’s on Facebook now, too.  His answer? He doesn’t know.  So my mom decides to jump in and be helpful by asking “Which one do you put your picture on?  Because that’s the one he’s on. He put his picture on one of those sites.”  After a bit of laughing on my part, I tell them that you put your profile picture on both sites, so they’re still not clear about if he’s on Facebook or not.  I tell them I’ll look into it tonight and will let him know.

Further, when I ask him why he made his public profile name on Twitter “oldbari” (short for old baritone — he’s a barbershopper), he said he didn’t do that or at least didn’t recall naming himself that way.  I asked him how he would be using his Twitter account (keep up with friends, use it to find business associates, etc.) and gently suggest that he go with his actual name (or as close to it as possible as he has a fairly common name).

After a bit of research, I determined he’s not on Facebook.  It’s a start and I’m proud of him for getting out there and learning about it.  It’s impressive that he’s taken an interest in it.  But it’s still funny that he wasn’t sure what site he created a profile on.