So, when I signed up for Facebook, I may have lied about my age ... a little. Instead of putting my real year of birth, I think I may have subtracted 10 years. I figured my "friends" would know it was a joke, and if not, well, then so be it. But that was my (not necessarily honorable) choice. Poor Marguerite Joseph, however, has been given no choice but to lie about her age on Facebook.
According to Click on Detroit, the 104-year-old Michigan woman has been trying to put her real age on Facebook for years, but some kind of "glitch" won't allow people over 99 to enter their real age. Her granddaughter, Gail Marlow, who updates Marguerite's profile page for her daily, said when she tries to type in her grandmother's birth year -- 1908 -- it changes it to 1928.
Shame on you, Mark Zuckerburg, this is unacceptable. This woman should get to proudly display every single one of her years.
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Seriously, keeping up with technology is one of the most important things people can do as they age for keeping in touch with relatives, for mental stimulation, and to just stay with the times. Social media should not rule them out when developing products. Our lifespan is growing, and technology should help and encourage this rather than write off those over a certain age.
According to the station, Gail has been trying for years to contact Facebook and get them to change the system so her grandmother doesn't have to lie anymore. She says so far she hasn't gotten any response, but still holds out hope.
"I would love to see her real age on Facebook, I mean in April she’s going to be 105," she told the station. "It’s special."
Special indeed. C'mon, Mark, make it happen!
Do you think Facebook should change the system so people over 99 don't have to lie about their age?
Image via west.m/Flickr
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Comments 21
I have a frined on there who listed his birth year as being 1913 so I don't understand why it bumps her 1928.
friend**
Your wording of you story title "unacceptable reason" is misleading. it's a computer glitch, not racism or a conspiracy to eat her brains. your fuss over a computer glitch is unacceptable. Mark Zuckerburg has developed a system that lets almost everyone show their age, and for that you should be thanking him, not acting like something terrible is happening.
"Shame on you, Mark Zuckerburg, this is unacceptable. This woman should get to proudly display every single one of years." Do you honestly think that Zuckerburg is still toiling away behind Facebook, doing each of the updates and programming? Come on, lady - he has a ton of proggrammers working for him now, any one of which could have easily made the bits of 1's and 0's error that is preventing this woman from putting in her correct age. It's not some vast conspiracy, it's a glitch! Instead of trying incessantly to enter in a birthdate that isn't being accepted, has anyone in the family emailed Facebook Developers to let them know, so they could... oh, I dunno... fix it?
To echo some comments above, the title of this post was very misleading, and the premise is based on faulty assumptions. And no, I don't think it's ok to lie about one's age "just because you're a woman" - grow older with grace, like you are purporting that the woman this article is about did - don't try to knock ten years off, cuz honey, I doubt you can pull it off ;)