Life

How Old Is Too Old For Facebook?

by Doyin Oyeniyi

Turns out you can be too old for Facebook. When 113-year-old Anna Stoehr tried to join Facebook days before her 114th birthday, she faced a problem. The oldest birth year Facebook recognizes is 1905, but Stoehr was born in 1900, meaning the popular networking site wouldn't let her register using her actual age. Not to worry, though, because Stoehr had a simple solution — she just decided to shave 15 years off. And while lying about your age on social media isn't an entirely new phenomenon, Stoehr's little fib comes with an added bonus — come October 15, 2015, she’ll get a second go at celebrating her centennial year, this time on Facebook.

But Facebook isn't the only new tool the technologically savvy Stoehr has been testing out. Thanks to the help of Joseph Ramirez, a Verizon sales rep who first sold her son, Harlan Stoehr, an iPhone, Stoehr has also been learning how to use other tools most millennials take for granted, like Google and FaceTime. Ramirez and Stoehr have struck up a friendship, and he visits her to help her browse the Internet and Facetime with people.

As her son Harlan told KARE 11, “That’s an aspect of my mom. She’s been curious about everything all her life and continues to be curious.”

Seriously? How cool is this woman? Say goodbye to any misconception you may have had that older generations don't take well to new technology and innovations, because Stoehr is definitely proving those stereotypes wrong. And Facebook is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what she's experienced in her incredible lifetime. Stoehr has lived long enough to witness several key inventions that have completely revolutionized society as we know it. Just think, the Wright Brothers didn't invent the first airplane until 1903.

Stoehr can certainly say she's seen it all. Never mind big inventions like, say, modern computers or cell phones — here are 10 other life-changing inventions that have cropped up during Stoehr’s lifetime:

1907 – Auguste and Louis Lumiere invented color photography

So basically, thank you for Instagram. And the selfie.

1913 – Arthur Wynne invented the crossword puzzle

Harry Engels/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images

...giving us one more way to make each other feel intellectually inferior.

1920 – Earle Dickson invented the first Band-Aid

And it was originally pronounced ban-dade.

1928 – Walter E. Diemer blessed us with bubble gum

A true genius of the 20th century.

1935 – We saw the world’s first canned beer

And by we, I mean Anna Stoehr. Krueger Brewing Company sold the world’s first canned beer, Krueger Cream Ale.

1948 – Shout out to Kevin Tuohy for inventing soft contact lenses

An invention no one saw coming.

1958 – Richard Knerr and Arthur Melin invented the Hula Hoop

Roger Kisby/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

...and changed the playground forever.

1974 – Arthur Fry invented post-it notes!

So thank goodness for that!

1980 – Baruch Blumberg discovered the antigen that led to the creation of the Hepatitis-B vaccine

Science for the win.

2005 – Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim introduced the world to YouTube

I think we all can agree it was life-changing. Because of all the cat videos, right?

What a time to be alive, indeed.

Images: Getty Images (2); Giphy (8)