Eldon-Online

The Joy of Learning

Tell me and I forget; teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn. (Benjamin Franklin)

It shouldn't do so because it is a case of each to their own really, but I do suffer from varying degrees of irritation by people who say they are too old to learn something new or who say the old way is the best and therefore the only way. Let's be frank - It may indeed be the best, but have they tried a new way?

Maybe I'm lucky but I enjoy experimenting and actually learning something new and I have a list of things to learn when I retire - whatever that word means - and although not a part of this Blog - a mild digression; I have also been exercised recently by the meaning of words - Brexit comes to mind!! Surely the biggest problem here is that given there was nothing other than a vague notion of Brexit (in or out of Europe, yes or no!), I think a lot of people who voted to leave have very different ideas as to what "leave" meant! It's a little like reading a book and imagining in your mind the voice of the characters which, when the film is made, don't at all come out like you imagined. More confusion. Anyway - back to the joys of learning!

Throughout history our ancestors were often faced with new things to learn and understand, when they weren't killing each other that is, and today is no different (minus the killing - so far!) although I grant you that things change perhaps at a more frightening speed than they did in the past. 

We take for granted the flushing toilet for example - but it took many years to be perfected, and if it hadn't been we would of course be knee-deep in unpleasant brown stuff by now. Steam engines, another great invention and where would we be without electricity - although actually sadly there are still people living today who do not have that benefit (about 1.1bn at the last count).

But today it is the turn of technology to take centre stage in a bid - in many cases - to make our lives easier. For many older people this is becoming a nightmare. It's too fast, it's too complicated, and too invasive for many, and as a result they don't even try. I hear them say "I'm too old to learn that", or "why should I be bothered?" I do understand, it's a question of choice and we also have to be honest and say that there are some technological developments that are downright anti-social. Messaging applications? Great innovation - but not when you are so addicted that everyone is sitting round a dinner table sending messages to all and sundry. "What are you doing?" you ask - "just talking to my friends!" - No you're not! Talking means uttering words that other people can hear. BUT using messaging appropriately - and using the voice calls over the internet even over huge distances and for no cost, are enormous benefits.

Part of the issue though is surely a bit like Brexit, the lack of instructions - at least that are intelligible to the average human being over 50. 

Deliver an iPad or something similar to a person unfamiliar with the technology and they open the box to find ... an iPad. No instructions! Ooh - where is the on/off button, and how do I set it up? You run into those sort of difficulties and you need to find the nearest 10-year-old who will happily (but without a great deal of explanation), sort it out for you. Still no instructions. 

Then there is the security involved around using technology - passwords, finger prints and facial recognition. The older generation gets rather confused, not to say worried, by the necessity to have passwords (and being told not to write them down), or use a thumb print to open an application - or heaven forbid actually use facial recognition - despite the fact that facial recognition is very sophisticated and remarkably secure.

The point is - despite the occasional negative, many things in the world today have been designed to make our experiences more interesting and enjoyable. From playing the music of your choice, to reading or listening to books, from learning languages, to speaking to friends and relatives across continents for no cost - even seeing them on a screen - ordering clothes and food online, are not scary things to be avoided at all costs. But they do need to be understood and I would echo the words of Benjamin Franklin particularly when it comes to involvement. Learning should keep the mind active and not be something feared, at any age. 

If you know a reluctant technology user who is merely holding back because they don't know how - then show them. Better still, depending on their age, write it down so they know how to do it themselves the next time. I know that I am on the lookout for something new to learn every day - and I don't intend to stop. The technology world, like it or not, is here to stay and if you know which bits are useful to you - embrace them. Although having written all this as a "note to others" - some will have to work out how to access this Blog first!!

Cold Turkey

Happy New Year - Occidental, and Oriental when it comes.

Apologies for the delayed First Post for the year, but let me explain.

I don’t know about you but there is a sinking feeling that always exists after Christmas when the leftover turkey gets re-cycled into every new recipe imaginable. That said I would really draw the line at turkey ice cream - although I have now found the answer to the leftover turkey problem – roast beef!

Anyway – this is not about a turkey or Turkey, but “cold turkey” the name given to someone who is trying to break free of a perceived addiction. In this case, digital devices!!

(With acknowledgement to "Off the Leash" by Rupert Fawcett)

I started January 2018 in travel mode and in the company of friends - in fact I was with much of the same group for the majority of the month. These are friends of long standing, ranging from 40 years of friendship to the most recent, only 25 years, and from various parts of the world. One or two of them, and I do understand,  have not really come to grips with the modern era and were thus somewhat critical of anyone using digital devices especially when we were supposed to be on holiday, relaxing and catching up by the use of face to face communication.

I admit it, I'm not very well-behaved when it comes to disciplining my own use of devices, and therefore confess to a "certain amount" of addiction which I have - honestly - been trying to overcome. I am supposed to be sort of retired although I do, thankfully, have a number of commitments that require my attention. That said, I am also conscious that even within the workplace these days, when people take a vacation some companies actually forbid their use of emails and the like. Two purposes here - one is to ensure that in the unlikely event someone has been been misbehaving an absence from the use of their business device might bring misdemeanours to light (sadly and surely a forlorn hope these days because if they are actually cheating their own company intentionally, as they will be ultra-cautious!!), and the rather more altruistic ideal of giving people a real break.

So, I set out to prove that I was not addicted to my devices (other than downloading my daily newspaper), and could operate on a minimal-use basis just as well as anyone - and in the full understanding that I would have unfettered access on my return to the real world. Whatever real world means for someone partly retired and ultimately heading down towards the fully retired bucket in the foreseeable future.

Thus it was, dear readers, that for a little over three weeks I was permitted to at least read and respond to the occasional unavoidable work email, but others were either put on hold or may have received a holding reply. Of course the problem is that I have, over the years, cast something of a rod for my own back by keeping generally up to speed with and using technology, and by responding quickly and at whatever time to emails.

It was - shall we say - interesting!! I had questions about my health because my lack of response was out of character, and I am sure that some people thought I was being rude by not responding immediately but hey, once I am retired I will have plenty of time to respond to emails and the like - and who's going to send me emails then anyway.

But I'm not retiring just yet - and when I do I am still trying to work out where I am going to live - and so for me, experiment over. I am happy with my generally "controlled" addiction. A functioning e-coholic you might say, and emails will in future be answered/sent as they used to be. Oh, and if I haven't replied to one of you yet, my apologies, it will be with you shortly!!

Whatever Happened To ...

As you get older there are occasions - too many actually - when you meet up with old friends and the inevitable questions start, usually around the phrase "whatever happened to ...".

Well, recent events have persuaded me that this is not an "oldie" phenomenon but one that should be worrying absolutely everyone today. And it should run along the lines of "whatever happened to decency, integrity and compassion?"

Within that topic I am going, for once, to put the phenomenon of "banker bashing" partly to one side despite the comments the other day by the leader of the Labour Party in Britain, Jeremy Corbyn, who said that he was going to target "... tax cheats, rip off bosses and greedy bankers". Great. let's tar everyone with the same brush shall we? No one these days in Britain, it seems, wants to admit they work in a bank. Hard to avoid when there are something approaching 150,000 people employed in the industry in the UK but by his comments - and because people are not discriminatory in their assessment of news, they are all greedy bankers. For those who thought the era of banker bashing was coming to an end, welcome to a brave new world. There are greedy bankers, I agree, but they are in the minority Mr. Corbyn and the majority does not need your gratuitous comments on an industry where I suspect there are more greedy politicians per capita than there are bankers. A little decency would not go amiss.

No, actually my "whatever happened to ..." is much more relevant with today's news where we are faced with huge ransom demands being made on a public sector and ultimately private sector, I presume, where hackers have successfully created a global problem by hacking amongst other things into medical records, including details of people needing life-saving operations. Just how cynical can you get? This from a generation of people who advocate self-driving cars and other technological wonders? Look, I am as interested in technology as the next person and try to ensure that I embrace the positive opportunities that are being created every day. But this massive global hack? Just where has common decency gone? There is absolutely no thought - no compassion - for the many people who will suffer as a result. Greed, Mr Corbyn? 

In my Blogs over the years I have commented on the lack of common sense that prevailed in the world, but this hack surely descends into the depths of a depravity of behaviour that disgusts? Of course we have been hearing a lot recently about the use of hacking in elections, be they US or French, and I saw a presentation recently about the number cyber attacks that are made on financial institutions on a daily, second by second basis. It is frightening.

No one, and nothing, is safe or sacrosanct in this world in which we live. Forget the terrorism that inflicts our world - be it the creation of concerns globally by groups such as ISIS, or the demagogue like antics of some of our global leaders today, we are at risk on a minute to minute basis by cyber threats and bullying from people who have no ethics, no morals and certainly no thought of compassion. Do you wonder, therefore, that the older generation are less enthusiastic about technological "progress" than the creators of the same? Get into a car that drives itself when some smart 10 year old can drive you off the road, for fun? - Hmm, no thanks!

But today's world does not just have problems related to new technology. What sort of world have we become where we need to protect our children (or in my case grandchildren), by not allowing parents to take pictures or videos of school performances in which the children are performing, in case such pictures fall into the hands of the wrong people. The same goes for the inability of adults to accompany children on sporting events, for example that are not your own unless you have police clearance to do so. Look, I get the need to this in today's world, but I am saddened by the requirement and sickened by what we have become.

Integrity, loyalty, and good behaviour were all characteristics instilled in our generation as children. Today, it seems, if you tell a child off for misbehaving you are going to destroy their individuality forever. If you enter a child in a race and he or she comes last, the participation is recognised rather than the result - so when they hit the real world and discover that if you come last you don't get a certificate but a dismissal notice, they are unprepared. You give a child an iPhone and similar at an early age and they become addicted and insular. They have no idea how to communicate real time in a face to face situation, discover they have few face to face friends (other than Face time to Face time), and so they withdraw. And these days where does that lead? In too many cases, to a situation they find too hard to handle and where the question "whatever happened to ..." has a pretty sad ending.

Wake up people, we are going to destroy each other and ourselves unless we do something positive. 

TechnoTrad

I admit it: I had no idea what title I was going to give this piece. It's all about the technological world in which we live today and the surprising amount of tradition that is still around. And around almost to the extent that it might not go away any time soon, giving hope to those over and above a certain age that they still have a role to play. So I combined technology and tradition. Simple.

We are surrounded on a daily basis by reports of the advances in technology, artificial intelligence, robots taking over our jobs, driverless cars, no need for money in cash form - the list is actually endless and growing.

That growth is in the hands of the digital natives and millennials, and although facing extinction dinosaurs still roam the world and seem to revel in the fact that they are happier living in the past. No computers, they don't use ATM machines and I am sure in some cases they may even use a typewriter or have maybe mastered a fax machine. Hands up anyone under 25 who has actually seen one of these things? But how long can they hold out against advancement and a tech-savvy generation coming up rapidly behind them.

Now although of dinosaur age I have always prided myself on kind of keeping up with technology but it is growing at a much faster pace than it ever was, and therefore in time and as the brain cells start to function at a slower speed I am sure I will get left behind, but not disinterested. But you know, despite all these advancements it appears to me that there are still some traditional attributes about living in this world that are not actually changing so fast, or are drawing back from the edges of where they had reached.

 On the latter point, for example, take books. They are still being written and thereafter appearing in paper form despite the obvious online attractions of downloading them to read. There are an increasing number of people now who tell me they are going back to the paper versions of the books because they like the feel of the book and they can see easily how far they have read. It seems to be a comfort for them, and it's not just the older folk but young ones too. And I get that. Indeed my own Kindle is lying quietly in a corner at present. Having said that I read just about all my newspapers online, and 90% of the companies on whose Boards/committees I sit deliver the papers to me using technology. When you end up with Board papers for a meeting these days that run to a length in excess of War and Peace (seriously) - by using technology you are saving the environment for sure. It is of course possible to annotate those papers, but I admit to the occasional temptation to print some of them out if only to save my eyesight.

I am talking about other things too that today technology cannot replace. You can use technology to contact people easily and instantaneously. You can use various social media networks to call them, diarise meetings, exchange information - BUT you cannot use technology to substitute for human interaction. Not yet, anyway. The more traditional means of looking a person in the eyes, watching their facial expressions, gauging whether they are being truthful, reading the body language. That all takes time, practice, and in person.

Then there is that fact lurking in the back of the minds of individuals today, in what I find to be an increasingly cynical world (and being by nature one of the most cynical it is concerning even to me) is a growing mistrust of technology. Those of you who know some of the things I do in Hong Kong will be aware I am involved with Octopus cards, the almost 20 year old, and definitely ahead of its time (at the time), transport and retail touch card. We have a facility that enables people to automatically top up their cards through their Bank account but the take up of this facility in relation to the number of cards in issue is very small. I ask why.Hong Kong people love technology. I am told it is because if the card is lost or stolen and used, unlike cash which once spent is gone, you run the risk of it being topped up from your account automatically. That is true, but the vast majority of people in Hong Kong are sensible folk who would keep their card safe, and would know quickly if it were lost so they could stop it. And if there are a number of top ups being made on a card with Automatic Top up, the company will pick it up the unusual pattern and call you to ask if it is you using the card. That is from practical experience I had, and it was way before I was involved with the company.

Also, I get asked to talk to groups of people about joining Boards for example, and also about subjects like Corporate Governance. These are things that require people to understand what is needed, to do the right things, be ethical - and while technology can provide much of the background information you need quickly, it cannot yet replace human nature. If it could, we would now be heading even faster down some slippery populist slope where you are not sure whether the information you see in front of you from the media is true or false.

So the next time you get excited about the prospect of jumping into a driverless car, make sure your enemies are not tech-savvy enough to be able to drive you off the road - or indeed the 10 year old next door hasn't decided he or she is going to get their own back because you told them to get off your garden wall!

For all the advances in tech, there's still a need for past history and tradition. Maybe TechnoTrad's not such a stupid title after all.

The Dilemma of Cash Flow.

I see that the subject of delayed payments to SMEs by “big business” has come round again as it does every so often. In the recent election campaign in the UK the now ex-Labour leader was vocal in his “outrage” at the damage caused to SMEs by their larger customers, who seemed to take a perverse delight in paying their dues at the very last minute. This outrage was followed in a Hong Kong newspaper article the other day with a similar level of condemnation. And quite right too.

The trouble is this is not a new problem. I remember writing letters, that were actually published for once, to the press in the 1980s on the very same subject. SMEs have lived with a cash flow dilemma for years – but that doesn’t mean to say it’s right.

One suggestion to combat the practice, about which I am less than convinced, is to name and shame the offenders. I personally don’t think it’s an answer because those slow-payers will merely say that they are managing their business effectively to the benefit of their shareholders and, of course, their own cash flow. This is less of a valid excuse in the case of the public services, as seems to be the thrust of the Hong Kong article, where the delays are more of a bureaucratic nature than cash management.

So, if major companies  - or indeed the public services - can’t behave like responsible grown ups and pay their small suppliers on time, there may be some help at hand. And it’s not necessarily coming from traditional quarters.

The banks have tried to help – no, honestly(!) – but the statistics on lending to SMEs don’t make pretty reading. I am not sure how many start-ups fail in the first year these days but it used to be a pretty horrifying number. Over 80% I recall, but for the purposes of this note I am not talking start-up SMEs but established small businesses: those with a proven track record, but who still face the ignominy of chasing cash flow so they can operate efficiently themselves and do simple things like paying their wages and utility bills on time.

Now remember, I am a conservative and extremely boring ex-banker not given to wild enthusiastic rushes into new and untried forms of lending, but some of what is on offer out there now is going to make a difference, and in one form at least also reflects a form of financing that seemed to die a death a good many years ago.

I am of course referring to crowd-funding principles, P2P lending, invoice discounting – didn’t we used to call it factoring – and indeed the growth of entities known as Challenger Banks in the UK although I think these latter new banking interests look a little too traditional in nature. They may be more nimble because they are small, and they may use technology effectively, but the mind-set may be too old fashioned, a bit like mine!

You may already have heard of Funding Circle in the UK that has been going for 5 years. Both Prosper and Lending Club in the USA have been going successfully for somewhat longer, over 10 years, and this is not a trend that is likely to abate.

The Middle East now has a number of new-type lenders. For example, I suspect you probably won’t have heard of “Beehive”. Their main focus at present is in the Middle East, but they are a peer-to-peer lender, an invoice discounter, an Islamic finance lender. An online marketplace directly connecting potential investors to creditworthy businesses.

While banks today probably still have upwards of 80% of this type of SME lending on their books, I think there is a definite trend away from banks as these alternatives become more sophisticated and better at marketing. And actually some banks, to be fair to them, and other alternative disruptors in the market such as Amazon, Google and Alipay for example are recognising this new source of funding, and in some cases even joining forces

But does it work? Given a number of caveats, it could. 

 

In the first place, and somewhat unusually, it may provide a lower cost of funding for the SME. Unusual because banks price for risk. SME risk is traditionally higher than large corporate risk (although you wouldn’t think so sometimes), so they have to pay more even though – perversely – they can’t afford more but have so far had no other choice. P2P lending creates an opportunity for the SME to borrow more cheaply because the lenders are likely to demand less and competitively they won’t get into the better deals if they demand high returns.

For the investors they can, if they wish, spread relatively small amounts of money across a broad range of businesses and on average obtain  a better rate of return than they might otherwise earn from non-existent interest in bank deposits or investing in high priced and volatile equities.

But … isn’t there always one, this is not an investment vehicle for the faint-hearted and if you are thinking of investing your life savings in these schemes – DON’T!! This will be a market more for a category of people who understand the pitfalls associated with what is largely unregulated lending, and investing through well-established and reliable market participants who you can trust to have done their due diligence properly, and who will on your behalf keep an eye on the borrowing SMEs, paying your returns on time.

Will there be failures? You bet, but there will be successes too. The principle of “caveat emptor”  or – “let the buyer beware” is clearly indicated here and sadly there will undoubtedly be some cheats and tricksters.

But if both SME's and their customers are creditworthy, there is a business opportunity in managing the cash-flow problems of slow payment.  If old-fashioned banks don't seize it, new players with new business models will do so.  Given the rapid rise of new players like Alipay and Beehive, that shift seems to have started!

"Big Data" - Big Help or Big Problem?

You just cannot be in business today without hearing the term "Big Data". Mind you, I blame the management consultants for producing yet another snazzy buzz phrase to tease their clients. To be clear, I am not against buzzwords just as long as they are relevant and convey the appropriate meaning. The "C-Suite", for example is pretty reasonable shorthand for the senior people in a company whose titles start with the letter "C" - Chairman, CEO, CFO, COO and so on. But this "Big Data" is leaving me somewhat cold by its ambiguity, and the real problem is that it has hit the C-Suite.

I heard a Chief Executive recently talking about the fact that he would in future have all the management information his company needed because they had embraced the idea of big data. He could save huge amounts of money because he would no longer need hordes of people like analysts in his back office, nor would he need to employ expensive management consultants. And because he had so much information he would be miles ahead of those companies that didn't understand big data. He was quite affronted when I suggested that big data might not be quite as much of a panacea as he was obviously thinking - and I spent the next 30 minutes discussing with him the merits - and otherwise, from my perspective! I hope I at least persuaded him that he might want to be asking quite a few more questions before he embraced it any further.

Don't get me wrong. I truly think that big data can be of enormous help to businesses - as long as it is understood and, even more importantly in my view, then used properly!

There are of course many people who know what big data is all about, (particularly at the working level) but for the less technically or business minded readers of my blog, let me just try an explanation. 

Simply put, imagine the biggest reference library you have ever seen or can imagine, and multiply the size by at least ten times. Big data is like that. It is a collection of data so large that it becomes difficult to find what you are looking for by using traditional methods of database management. As a result, work that was previously being done by using analysts is now being handled through creating a series of algorithms that "interrogate" the data and spew out the information you need. Or you think you need. This, for the business community, could be used to spot business trends, seek out inefficiencies, and provide clues to current customer behaviour - leading perhaps to future trends (of course only as long as the conditions existing today remain unchanged!) Sounds good, doesn't it? And it is a big help.

So far, so good - but with the huge mass of information you are receiving who handles it, who "interrogates it", and who is then responsible for creating company strategy?

But there are a few basic things to remember here. Firstly, is all the information you think you need actually necessary to make some decisions, or are you just accumulating information that is of little real value? Secondly, who is creating the algorithms to interrogate the big data to provide the results? Until computers can think for themselves (and yes, I know it's coming), you will still need people to create the right algorithms. People who know the business, and therefore have the ability to ask the right "questions" Remember that old saying from Economics Nobel Prize Laureate, Ronald Coase (who by the way is 102 years old), who said "Torture the data, and it will confess to anything!" Quite!

From my point of view it is surely valid for consultants to be pushing big data as a concept to companies, but there is probably a better case to be made for those consultants who can successfully help in the creation of appropriate algorithms, in other words creating the right questions, and the subsequent interpretation of the answers. Heaven help many Boards of Directors if they are left to understand this stuff on their own. And yes - that includes me!

While we live in an increasingly technologically driven world, the users of that technology still only operate with human brains - which frankly have their limitations. So until we catch up, corporations need to realise that big data aside, much of the "little data" they have is still sufficiently powerful to enable them to do a better job for their clients, and therefore their businesses, than they are doing at present.

As one of my sons pointed out in a comment recently, how is it that a financial institution with whom he has had a relationship for 30 years still addresses him by mail as "Dear Valued Customer". They will have enough clues to realise that he is now married, since he has a joint account, should have an idea that he has children as they have accounts of their own, and with this should know - and be able to customise easily, suitable offers to him. We have the capability to do all this stuff today on "little data". 

Other organisations do it - witness the slightly embarrassing story that came out of US retailer Target. (Do have a read - it's worth it, and it provides a lesson in what you can do today!)

So before we get hung up on big data, make a start by using more effectively the "little data" you already have.

But as for "Big Data"? - Sure, go for it and use it successfully but make darn sure those people in the Boardroom know what it's all about if they are being asked to commit millions of shareholder money in whatever currency into technology that might pay off - but might not if you don't use it properly! 

Hey - What About Us Humans?

I obviously have far too much time on my hands!

After I completed my annual medical in May this year, I decided - once again - that it was time I started thinking about my weight. I set myself a goal, which was to reach a weight I had not seen in 10 years, and was around a level a kindly doctor had set for me some 25 years earlier. But I gave myself a generous amount of time in which to do it. Losing weight quickly, I had always been led to believe, was merely a recipe for putting it back on just as quickly. Thus 40lbs (18.1kgs) in 10 months, I thought would be a sensible approach. The diet was working reasonably well, but it would have benefited more from an increase in exercise levels, I admit that. Then I got a virus!!

Now, I would not recommend hunting out a virus in replacement for diet and exercise, but it worked for me! Weight loss accomplished - 4 months early, but I am now getting paranoid about putting it all back too soon. Of course increasing exercise would be a good start. (Yes, I will!).

And then I read about the Japanese and their obese pets! 

I have to say, the Japanese seem to be great inventors - particularly of things slightly odd. Little umbrellas for your shoes in the rain, or a real boon for Hong Kong users of the Mass Transit Railway - Subway Sleepers -

I presume the message gives the lady's destination, so someone can wake her up. (yeh; right!)

But back to the pets!

The Japanese, in recent years, have started to value having pets around and dogs in particular, but they are letting the dogs get too fat. So what's the answer? A Wandant or canine obesity monitor. (According to "The Times", Wan means "woof" in Japanese).

 

The concept is simple. A pedometer hangs from the dog’s collar and as the dog moves around and does what dogs do all day, the data is gathered and stored on a cloud service. The dog owner can then access the health info via their laptop or smartphone while on the go.

The dog obesity monitor records temperature changes, weight, number of steps taken, the amount of food the dog has eaten and even its "stool condition".

Well, it sounds great for dog owners - but what about us humans (maybe ignoring the stool condition)? The development of something helpful for the growing band of obese people who would actually rather like some "assistance" in reducing weight - and it being done graphically. And obesity is now not just a "westerners" phenomenon. It is becoming apparent in Asia too - thanks (or no thanks, actually!) to the introduction of western-style diets, and serving portions.

What about it inventors?

It's Official - I AM Weird!

Well of course I always thought there was something odd about me. Others naturally spotted it a long time ago, and most were kind enough not to mention it to me directly, but now I have confirmation. I guess it's a bit like bringing closure to an awkward situation - and it's a bit of a relief really, to get the monkey off my back.

The cause of the classification? I have "chosen" not to sign up for Facebook and apparently devotees of Facebook have decided that anyone who abstains from joining the "social networking" site should be "filed under weird"! And before you jump to conclusions yes, despite my age, I am technically competent enough to sign up if I want to - but I choose for the time being not to do so.

Frankly I find Facebook and other so called social networks to be more anti-social networks myself. People seem to spend hours closeted away with any number of iPads, tablets, iPhones or laptops "talking" to or intruding upon people who have signed up as "friends", and looking at a range of photographs ranging, I suppose, from the truly artistic to the nauseatingly embarrassing. And I suspect more working hours are lost in a number of countries, despite the attempt by corporations to restrict the use of such sites during working hours, by facebookers and tweeters who have become hooked on these networks. And you only have to sit in any eatery (for want of a better word) to discover tables of people busily engaged in looking at small screens.

Whatever happened to the art of conversation for goodness sake?

The concept of being "weird", unfortunately, has been reinforced by the fact that neither the Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik nor the recent killer of 12 people in a Colorado cinema, James Holmes, were on Facebook. So that proves it then!!

The British newspaper The Observer also highlighted those words of wisdom from Facebook founder (and now a less wealthy billionaire than he was at the time of flotation of the company), Mark Zuckenberg who apparently declared that "...anyone who prizes privacy over beloging to a social network is not only pretentious but dodgy". No self-interest there!!

Actually, I like my privacy and respect the wishes of those other human beings who have a similar desire, but I fear that at some stage I am going to have to succumb to something in the long term - even if it is not Facebook.

I asked my elder son a year ago about how I would communicate with my first grandaughter when she became a teenager (some years to go yet), if she grew up on a diet of "social networks", and I was not on Facebook. Without hesitation he said, "how you communicate with her in ten years time has not been invented yet". Scary thought, but quite probably true.

But having Facebook rammed down your throat now is becoming increasingly alarming. I am receiving more and more message from corporations who are saying - if you want to get full details of this or that you can read it on our Facebook page - but of course you have to sign up!! Well, no, in that case I don't want to get full details of something if that is way I am going to have to get it with no alternative choice - I will do without. Perhaps it's short-sighted but then I can be quite stubborn. 

It's already bad enough being bombarded by computer driven telephone calls offering you this or that service, and you take the darned call because you don't recognise the number, and are concerned it might be something important.

So, if that means I am on my way out - then I should subside gently into the elephants graveyard and spend my remaining years having real conversations with real people face to face in the real world, but still reading newspapers, magazines and the occasional book on my iPad! Weird!