Social networking is not just for kids anymore.  The fastest growing population on Facebook is between 40 and 60 years old.  Another growing segment are those over the age of 60.  This group may have signed up originally to chat with their grandchildren, but it’s becoming a lot more than that.

My 70+-year old mother was telling me the other day that she connected with people she went to High School with.  How do you like that?  Almost 50 years later, she was able to reconnect with friends and acquaintances from High School!

With so many different types of social networking sites on line, how do you choose?  What is the difference between them?

• Twitter is one that has gained a lot of popularity, especially in the media.  Some towns and villages have set up Twitter sites to inform their community on what’s going on.  In Tamarac, Florida, the “Tamgram” is on Twitter.  If there is something new or something going on in the town, the Twitter Tamgram tells its constituents.  Twitter is also for research, trends and getting opinions from many different people.

• Facebook enables you to connect with your children and grandchildren and anyone else who you have known for the last 50+ years.  It’s a great vehicle to connect and get reacquainted.  It also has a host of shops, retail outlets and restaurants.  If you “like” these pages, you will be offered with coupons and other incentives.

• LinkedIn is a site that is used mostly by business people. It’s a good site if you are looking for a job or looking for leads for your business.  There are good forums and chat rooms where you can get specific information about a subject.  For example, if you are looking to write a book about your life, you may consider joining a writing forum on LinkedIn.

• YouTube is a fun site to see videos of your children and grandchildren. It’s also a place to see trends and watch videos that have gone viral.

• Flickr is another social networking site that many seniors use to post photographs that they take.  Remember this site is open for everyone and once you post a photo it may be used in someone’s blog site or somewhere else on the Internet.

My advise, start with Facebook to get your feet wet.  Start conversations and remember that social networking is about sharing experiences and getting to know people.

Last night I was out to dinner with a few male colleagues who own businesses. I turned to Richard, one of the entrepreneurs I was with, and asked him, “where are all the women?”

“You know Hil,” he says to me, “most women if given the choice and the right situation would prefer to stay home and raise the kids.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Women have been fighting for equal rights for so many years now and you would think at this point we would take equal responsibility in raising the kids.”

“Yeah, but it’s not that way,” he said. “They don’t want to work.”

I thought about that on the car ride home. Do most women choose not to work after they have kids? Am I the odd one out?  I don’t know about you, but since I spent so much time in college and then getting my master’s, I wanted to stick with my career… Do most women want to throw that away and start again after their kids are grown?

It’s amazing that in this day and age, the entrepreneur group that I am involved with has barely 20 or so women out of 240 members.  And, every time I play golf, I’m always outnumbered by men.

Hmmmm…. Makes you think…

It’s now mid-May and guess what?  I just received a birthday card.  It wasn’t a belated card from a family member or friend. It was a card from a vendor.  And you know what?  He knew my birthday was April 25 because he put it on the card. So why did he send it so late?

Was it the mail?  Was it that he wanted to stand out? Why did he send it at all?

The other thing I thought was interesting was that he included a $100 gift certificate toward his services.  Is that really a present?

Funny thing is, I never used his services before.  Does he think the $100 discount will entice me?

I’ve never really been a proponent of exercise.  I never played sports in school.  In middle and high school, I would come up with any and all excuses to get out of gym.

When I was in my twenties I was a little more athletic.  I rode my bicycle around NYC but that was the extent of my exercise regime.  After my kids were born, I worked out with the neighborhood girls at someone’s home with free weights.  We talked a lot and had a good time, but I never worked up a sweat.

Within the last few years, I started to play golf.  I figured I would be outside and getting exercise at the same time!  What is better than that?  I never realized that golf was not exercise.

Some may argue with me.  I know I didn’t believe my trainer when he told me that playing golf was not working out.  I continued to play, thinking that I could eat anything I wanted because I “worked out” for five hours!  Interestingly I noted that when I wore my calorie counter, I only burned 250 calories in five hours!  That is certainly not working out.  I checked my pulse.  It stayed on 65 – 70 throughout the round.  Was I working up a sweat? No. Was I burning the calories I needed? No.

Last August, I hired a personal trainer and started lifting weights. I didn’t really see a difference with my golf game anytime soon thereafter.  However, when I went to the Berkshire‘s with my husband for the first time all season, I played the best game of my life!

Why?  I believe it was the exercise and the strength training with my core that elongated my strokes. I cut more than 10 strokes off my game.  It felt so good.

So while I struggle to lift weights and train with my trainer, I know that it’s certainly doing something — it’s making me stronger, especially for golf to better my game!