Woman, 104, lies about age; Facebook apologizes

Woman, 104, lies about age to access Facebook because the social networking site won't let her enter in 1908 as the year she was born. Facebook has since apologized for making the woman, 104-year-old Marguerite Joseph, lie about her age and is working to fix the problem.

Woman, 104, lies about her age to get on Facebook. The social media giant allows her to select 1908, but then the date reverts to 1928 once the settings are saved.

Facebook is apologizing for a problem that makes a 104-year-old Michigan woman lie about her age on the social media website.

Marguerite Joseph's granddaughter says Facebook won't let Joseph list her real age.

Gail Marlow says when she tries inputting her grandmother's birth year as 1908, Facebook changes it to 1928. So for the past two years, the Grosse Pointe Shores centenarian has remained 99 — online, anyway.

Joseph is legally blind and can't hear well, but Marlow reads and responds to all her Facebook messages.

Marlow tells WDIV-TV she'd "love to see" Joseph's real age posted and chalks it up to "a glitch in the system."

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it's working to fix a problem limiting used of pre-1910 birthdates.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Woman, 104, lies about age; Facebook apologizes
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2013/0221/Woman-104-lies-about-age-Facebook-apologizes
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe