Holiday Social Media Tips for Baby Boomers

With the holiday season upon us, more and more people are looking for ways to connect with loved ones and old friends if they can't be with them in person. Social media sites like Facebook have seen an influx of baby boomers in recent years and with the holiday season here, more and more of us are looking for ways to connect with loved ones and old friends if we can't be with them in person.

While it's wonderful to use social media to make connections, it can have a downside. Here are holiday social media tips to keep you relatively safe:

1) Do not make public announcements about where you're going. No one needs to know you're leaving your home to go away to visit your children in another state. As a matter of fact, no one ever needs to know when you leave your home because that means it could be unattended and an open invitation to thieves.

2) Don't tell people where you are. On Twitter, people are known to post where they are while they're there. Once again, that's an open invitation to burglars.

3) Don't announce your shopping expenditures. Why brag that you've spent several hundred dollars on Christmas gifts this year? That's a signal that you HAVE money and could become a target for a robbery---or something far worse.

4) Advise your children and grandchildren not to go public with your business. While the family may be excited that you're coming to visit, it isn't necessary to put the information on their Facebook page or "tweet" about it. You don't know who they're connected to that might be interested in such information.

5) Finally, don't click on links from people you don't know. People may try to send you a holiday greeting in disguise---which could actually contain a nasty virus. You may be connected to the friend of a friend of a friend but if you don't know they personally, don't click on the link. Instead, just go their page and post a personal greeting and thank them for thinking of you. If they didn't post the link, you'll be doing them a huge favor.

By following these tips, baby boomers, their families and friends can enjoy the holidays and stay safe at the same time.

Baby Boomers and War

After spending 25 years in the politically incorrect arena of radio and television news, the last thing I want to do now is try to become a politically correct baby boomer.

I am opposed to the war but I wholeheartedly support our troops who are giving up their lives for President Bush's definition of "freedom."

A number of my fellow baby boomers have young sons and daughters who won't be home for Christmas this year because they are supporting an agenda. The least we can do is show our support for them by letting them know they haven't been forgotten. And what does it matter if you don't know anybody personally over in Iraq? Chances are you know someone who has someone connected to the war.

Xerox is giving all of us the opportunity to send a thank you card to our young men and women overseas. All you have to do is pick out the card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier who is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. Let's make sure there's no one without a thank you!

Remember Vietnam?

To send your card click here: Soldier