Misplacing your keys. Forgetting why you walked into a room. Joint pain. These were once the hallmark signs you were getting old. But now we can add having two or more Facebook accounts to the list.
And it’s wreaking havoc on the social media giant.
Research shows an epidemic of senior citizens creating a Facebook account only to forget their login info and make new accounts. “And that pattern rarely stops at two,” said Rahul Patel, chief operator at a Facebook Data Center. “We estimate that between three elderly people there’s roughly a dozen active accounts. Easily double figures.”
“I would say, definitely accept your parent or grandparent’s friend request. Just buckle up for three or four more,” said an annoyed Patel.
And it’s not just the data center staff that is annoyed. 29 year-old Amanda Green of Charlotte NC was perplexed shortly after accepting her nana’s friend request. Amanda quickly wrote, “I love you Nana!!” on her wall, but never received a response. “Then a week later I get another friend request from her! After the third request, I called her and asked her what was going on. She just kept repeating things like, ‘I do?’ and ‘Are you sure?’”
Following Thanksgiving, a popular time where family members encourage grandparents to create an account, another Facebook server became so overwhelmed it burst into flames and needed to be extinguished.
Warned Patel: “We’re just lucky no one helps them upload pictures or videos. You would see the explosion from space.”
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