I had the same situation with far away old people (grandmas in Venezuela, on in France, me living in Africa or Asia), some had problem with sight, earing, etc.

They didn't have internet.

We managed to get in touch.

> I'd ask that you not try to tell me what I really mean.

Manner of speaking.

The important is again that it is a matter of cost vs convenience.

I understand the cost can get pretty high.

Yet still, people kept in touch for decades with old distant relatives before the internet.

Using facebook is convenience, that's the point. It is very convenient.

It's the whole argument of this thread: the convenience eventually makes most people discard the cost of not using FB as too high, and the privacy things as not important enough compared to that.

They're 90? I wonder if it couldn't be replaced by a weekly phone call.

For reference, I'm 60, nearly 61, my mother is 90, nearly 91, and we are a long-lived family. I phone my mother three times a week.

For the rest, see my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32131180

Yeah, for your mother definitely makes sense to already have more than one weekly phone call, but I was thinking about other family members.

Reading your post, it seems Facebook is a bit of a recreational activity to keep them sharp and social, which is good. What I was thinking is whether you need to participate in it, since the people this age I know is more than willing to keeping me up to date on all interesting stuff by talking. But of course each family is different so I'll just assume you know what you're doing!

In my experience, almost everybody over 60 really prefers to talk on the phone anyways

I'm over 60 and I hate talking to people on the phone. My mother likes it, and that's why I call her three times a week. But most of my aunts and uncles prefer to show their photos on FB and talk about what they're doing there. I call them for birthdays and special anniversaries, and having kept up-to-speed via FB means I can talk about things that really matter, or get clarification on things that weren't obvious.

But they like using FB, and it's the only effective way I know to stay in touch and remain a part of their lives.