Who said social media was only for the young and trendy? Today I read about one silver surfer who has taken to Twitter with the intention of amassing tens of thousands of followers before she dies. That’s literally what she said.
Josephine Lamberti from Staten Island is an 80-year-old grandmother whose Twitter bio says she is hoping to reach “80K followers (or maybe a million) before I die!” And she isn’t doing too badly. After less than two years on the micro blogging site @J_DIMPS has over 65,000 other users following her.
Her story has not gone unnoticed by the celebrities on Twitter, with retweets and DMs from pop stars, professional sportsmen and women. Her most recent retweet is from socialite Sophie Kardashian. But it’s not just pleasantries in cyberspace that Josephine is receiving…
Earlier this year after chatting with him on Twitter, NBA player Nate Robinson invited @J_DIMPS and her 24-year-old grandson Donny Brandefine to one of his games. “We went and he met us after the game,” Josephine says. “He wanted to meet me more than I wanted to meet him. It was awesome.”
Her grandson also spoke of her celebrity acquaintances, and her list called MyAdoptedGrandchildren: “Thats all the big stars she has following her,” Brandefine says. “To me its crazy seeing her just sit there like, ‘Yeah, Jose Canseco’s reading me, Rihanna’s reading me.’ She thinks she’s a big shot over here!”
But how did she come to join Twitter? It would appear it was nothing more than being bored with retirement: “Well, it was getting a little boring, so he [Donny Brandefine] came over and we tried to figure out something to keep me busy,” she says. “We came up with this idea, and it’s been good.”
So there you have it. Do you think that you’ll still be using social media when you’re an octogenarian? Who is the oldest person that you interact with on a social network?