Yes, I'm one of those grandmas who tweets. (If you don't follow me, click on the link at the end of this post.) I follow posts containing the words "grandparent" and "grandparenting" so that I won't miss any newsworthy items. Recently I added the word "grandma" to the list. Many smiles later, I had to remove it, because so many Twitterers mention their grandmas that the newsworthy posts were getting lost in the personal ones.


Still, I was gratified to know that grandmothers figure so largely in the lives of the young adults who make up the largest segment of Twitter's demographic. I also found it interesting to look at the contexts in which "grandma" was tweeted. Since we're currently in the midst of a political campaign with emphasis on the elderly, "grandma" turned up fairly often in political tweets, but I didn't count them. Here's what I learned from looking at personal tweets about grandma:

• The greatest number of tweets -- about a quarter of the whole -- expressed affection for the tweeter's grandma.
• The next greatest number mentioned the illness or death of a grandmother, almost always in a loving way.
• The next greatest number mentioned food or shopping, those traditional grandmotherly pursuits.
• Another category involved young people calling themselves a grandma: "Going to bed at ten. Such a grandma!"
• By far the smallest category involved criticism of a grandmother for some type of irritating behavior.
• Another small category involved grandmothers doing something not age-appropriate. Yes, some of these were R-rated.

Thanks, Twitter, for these insights into the lives of grandmas and those who love them.

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Learn More:

• Grandparenting Teens
• Using Technology to Connect
• Grandparents on Facebook