Being Dragged, Kicking and Screaming, Into the 21st Century

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm not the target market for the latest and greatest in computers and internet and social media "stuff."  Admittedly, now, the first computer I got to use was back in 1966-1967, and the computer itself took up the entire third floor of the computer science building at my university.  (I am not making this up.)  And it didn't have a significant percentage of the computing power of my non-smart cellphone that I carry about in my pocket today.  Hard to imagine, isn't it?

Anyway, all that is to say that I have been something of a foot-dragger when it comes to embracing the newest computer technology, etc.  And this in spite of the fact that here I am, on the internet, blogging away on a regular basis.

But the fact that I don't rush in to embrace the latest computer technology does not mean that I am a Luddite, or that I have any particular antipathy towards where computers are taking us.  Indeed, I'm very happy that so many heraldic armorials and ordinaries can be accessed these days with computers; heraldry that in many cases we might never even have known about, much less been able to see, because they were tucked away in some library or archive somewhere in some corner of a far distant land.

But, social media, now.  You know, things like Facebook.  Yes, I have a Facebook account.  And sometimes, because they don't write to me very often, Facebook is the only way that I discover what my children or grandchildren are up to.  (That's not always a positive thing; Grandpa Dave does not need, or even want, to know that you are going out to do "shots with [your] friends!  Woohoo!")

But, yes, I have a Facebook account, and now Facebook has made it even easier for you to find me there.  My new "short form" Facebook ID is: http://www.facebook.com/David.B.Appleton

And even if you're not that interested in my personal life (frankly, I'm not always all that enamored of it myself), here are a few others who have Facebook pages or groups in which you might be interested:

The Canadian Heraldic Authority: http://www.facebook.com/HeraldryHeraldique
The American Heraldry Society: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59631965820
The Royal Heraldry Society of Canada: http://www.facebook.com/groups/35284796074/
The Heraldry Society (England): http://www.facebook.com/groups/2330330768/
The Scots Heraldry Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11068082437
Heraldry: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5827202105
Ecclesiastical Heraldry Fan Club: http://www.facebook.com/groups/157279830632/

On-line social media -- You don't have to embrace it wholeheartedly, but you don't have avoid it completely, either.