Comments on: The REAL story behind the 104-Year-Old who joined Twitter

By: How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? | OpenABlog

How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? | OpenABlog — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:06:54 +0000

[...] to TechCrunch, it was not. In a post titled The REAL story behind the 104-Year-Old who joined Twitter they explain that the old lady had joining Twitter just one day before, and that she was convinced [...]

By: expertia

expertia — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:52:01 +0000

What i sad story. Something i experience so often with elderly people….they get used and abused because they do not understand the risks and neither the possibilities of the internet. And you don’t have to be 104. expertia User are an average of 52 Years and still hard to handle but undoubtedly an growing target group. Would they onyl be viral!! we have 10.000 open Jobs for Best ager and one of the best silver surfer network, yet they do not rocket like facebook people! Patience is all i have to offer! And of course we also startet to twitter! No one realy wants to follow! To afraid of misused data! http://www.expertia.de. Come and join if you have good ideas!

By: Bob Kerns

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:43:42 +0000

While I appreciate and support your impulse toward journalistic transparency, I must say, your condescension toward the elderly leaves me cold.

You assume that Geek Squad “took advantage of an old lady”. Maybe, just maybe, the old lady thought their idea was cool — especially since she’d had experience with facebook.

Maybe, just maybe, Geek Squad going in and helping her get set up on Twitter was an act of charity and kindness. Lots of corporations do good works, and then publicize the fact. Is this wrong? Does it really matter whether they conceived the idea for the publicity, and decided it was a good work that would resonate with people, or if they were volunteers who spent some time with an old lady in a nursing home, and later chose to publicize it?

In the interest of journalistic transparency: You do not have the SLIGHTEST evidence that this woman was taken advantage of, manipulated, or harmed in any way. You do not have the SLIGHTEST reason to believe that she isn’t having more fun than she’s had since she joined Facebook.

In other words — you made this whole issue up out of whole cloth, and you owe this woman, and your readers, an apology.

Not because you’re wrong — I don’t know that either. But because it is condescending, insulting, and just plain Bad Journalism.

By: How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? | AskCharly

How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? | AskCharly — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:20:01 +0000

[...] messaging service. But was it real? According to TechCrunch, it was not. In a post titled The REAL story behind the 104-Year-Old who joined Twitter they explain that the old lady had joining Twitter just one day before, and that she was convinced [...]

By: bryan

bryan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:15:46 +0000

I completely disagree about the notion that this is one of the most “self-serving, cynical PR stunts” you can remember. You really think its that bad that a company took a photograph of this woman on her new twitter page and tried to get some press coverage out of it?i just found this amazing website, it has all kind of businesses from a cleaning companies to estate agents to banks, all I have to do is just type in the business type, and the location and it gives me all the results in that particular area, this website has a huge database of all sorts of businesses, I just joined a driving school which I found on this website. I would recommend this site to all the people out there.

By: How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? | The Best Seo Blogs

How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? | The Best Seo Blogs — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:55:50 +0000

By: How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? « Site Seo Doctor Blog

How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? « Site Seo Doctor Blog — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:30:02 +0000

By: Twitter Twit takes PR to a 104 year low « PR Linked

Twitter Twit takes PR to a 104 year low « PR Linked — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:31:27 +0000

[...] old woman in a retirement home as part of a PR stunt….and the journo’s took the bait. TechCrunch Editor Mike Butcher unmasked the stunt after performing back breaking investigation you’d [...]

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:21:12 +0000

I know! A WOMAN, even! It’s unthinkable!

(Sheesh.)

By: How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? | Sweep Money

How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? | Sweep Money — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:38:06 +0000

By: emily

emily — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:14:14 +0000

hello are u old
ohh
i know you hey when are u coming to me by preson

By: Actualité twitter N°1

Actualité twitter N°1 — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:38:01 +0000

[...] Une vieille dame de 104 balais utilise twitter il y a quand même plus de 14000 personnes qui suivent la vieille dame qui explique qu’elle a eu un bon déjeuner avant d’aller faire la sieste…. [...]

By: my blogg » My twitter story

my blogg » My twitter story — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:53:58 +0000

[...] been using twitter and surprisingly a cat now has a twitter account, and tweet – apart from the 104 years old lady who joined the twitter adventure! So, if that is their story now it is my turn. This is how twitter has smashed my life, [...]

By: Techblast

Techblast — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:58:01 +0000

Busted haha.. that story is hilarious.

Im guessing their link bait attempt worked better than they thought!

By: Riktor

Riktor — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:36:39 +0000

If you check up on Ivy you may have noted that Ivy both competed in and won a gold medal in the “over 75 olympics”

The update states:
Ivy Bean just won a Gold medal in todays Over 75 Olympics

Very feasibly, she’s made many friends from facebook if not simply winning the competition which could account for those she is following as well.

I’m open minded, and at first I even considered the possibility that this was just a PR stunt, but if you do even the slightest amount of digging, I’d say it’s fair to assume that this woman can tweet just as well as the rest of us!

Frankly, if GeekSquad also trained Ivy to be a gold medalist, bravo to them! That’s certainly more than I ever did for my grandma when hooking up her dvd player!

I applaud you, Ivy!

By: dman2kn1

dman2kn1 — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:52:36 +0000

This story is absolutely rediculous. I love how people try as hard as they can to find anything ‘incriminating’ on major retail stores. Sounds to me like the Geek Squad was doing their job by helping this lady. She probably contacted them because she wasn’t too tech saavy, so why would it be wrong of them to try to show her new aspects of life in a digital world? What a garbage story trying to get people to come to your site.

By: Alison Dale

Alison Dale — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:28:37 +0000

You know normally I love your posts but come on, this is really not your style. Let’s assume that you are right and poor old Ivy was taken advantage of for some PR. Surely that is not the worst thing ever done to an elderly person. She looks pretty happy in her pic.

You all are sounding a little like the government and sweating the small stuff. Don’t we have some bigger issues to deal with?

By: ArticleTastic » Blog Archive » How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz?

ArticleTastic » Blog Archive » How Far Can We Go to Build Buzz? — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:25:24 +0000

By: Twitter may decrease features for general people to increase revenue | Piyada's World

Wed, 20 May 2009 10:27:42 +0000

[...] However, If Twitter take any of those point there will be small doubt will occur on geek minded people. Twitter announces the Twitter limits after getting fished by malicious teen boy and now if they going to cash it then we might think they do it themselves to put that limit for show up a good reason in front of us. Anything is possible after the tricky work by Geek Squad revealed. [...]

By: safcblogger

safcblogger — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:06:37 +0000

I fell for the ruse hook line and sinker, i must stop skim reading pages like that, whats next then for the PR depts? youngest? tallest? longest marathon sessions on Twitter? Ho hum

By: What Kind of Impression Have You Left? @ DAPancost.com

What Kind of Impression Have You Left? @ DAPancost.com — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:42:16 +0000

[...] reading the original UK TechCrunch article, I’m still not sure what to believe about all this. However, faked PR stunt or not, I agree [...]

By: 104 Year Old Womam Uses Twitter? FAKE! » DiMco Productions!

104 Year Old Womam Uses Twitter? FAKE! » DiMco Productions! — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:49:44 +0000

[...] I’m not sure if you heard or not, but the 104 year old women who told everyone she tweeted at least twice an hour uses is a phony. The first article that everybody fell for is this one here . Now the real story behind that is just a person that acts as if he was a an old lady but wasnt the lady in the picture. Any ways go to the following link to read the specific article behind the 10 year old woman . Here. [...]

By: CMerry

CMerry — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:12:12 +0000

I am just not so amazed by older people wanting to learn modern tech. If she kept a detailed blog about how the world has changed over time I would read that. I don’t get why this made news, Twitter is just gabbing for her, she’s reached a great age for a human yes but what’s the big deal with wanting to be online? When/if I am 104 I will still stay current with everything I can and I would not think it that big a deal. Now when I win the Dakar-Moon rally as a 104 Gran yes I want headlines!

By: 104-letnia Brytyjka na Twitterze - vBeta.pl - blog o internecie, baza wiedzy o nowych programach, Web 2.0

Tue, 19 May 2009 11:00:58 +0000

[...] zauważył serwis TechCrunch, bardzo prawdopodobne wydaje się, że staruszka ma niewiele wspólnego z serwisami [...]

By: 104-year old Twitter woman just a pawn in a PR game? | BitterWallet

104-year old Twitter woman just a pawn in a PR game? | BitterWallet — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:08:08 +0000

[...] was the same over at TechCrunch. Oh, so it’s all just a big PR stunt for the arseholes at Geek Squad, orchestrated in tandem with [...]