Is oik a British English word? Probably. Anyway, even if you're not English, it's one of those nice onomato-wotsit words so you'll know what I mean.
You know the type - scruffy, looking insolent, baseball cap back-to-front, various and assorted piercings, a sprinkling of acne, thinking he's dead cool...
What annoyed me about this particular oik was the way he looked at me when I mentioned social media. OK, I'll admit it and be fair - he didn't actually say "what the hell do YOU know about social media?" No, he didn't say that but I'm pretty sure that's what 'the look' meant. And this is what I would have told him:
OK oik. Let's put this in perspective, shall we? You are what, twenty? That means you were born in 1990.
I got my first computer several years before you were even thought of. Admittedly, all I could do with it was make text dance around by writing strange things in strange coding languages called BASIC and COBOL, and play that game where you had to keep landing on planets to refuel (Elite was it?)
When I created my first website, you were six years old. OK, it was a pretty rubbish site and it makes me cringe to think about it now. But it worked and it brought in business - and that's what it was there for, after all.
I created my first social networking site when you were nine. It had thousands of members from all over the world. Oh and I might also mention that the oldest person on that site was in her eighties. The rather poor software used for the site gave up the ghost ten years later, but I'm still in touch with a lot of those members via Facebook. (Why use your own software when you can use someone else's?)
When I started using LinkedIn, I doubt that you had started shaving.
I will admit to you that I was never a MySpace person, but there again, neither was anyone over nineteen. But I reckon you were about sixteen when I first joined Facebook.
Not long after that, I had my first Twitter account. I've looked you up dear, and I see that you've been tweeting for all of six months.
So, you're the expert and I'm just someone's granny. OK.
See also:
The internet is for young people ...
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