Q. I don’t know much about social media, but my teenage daughter loves it. How important do you think Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are to helping working women in their forties, like me, not feel like dinosaurs?

Pamela: New technology can be intimidating, but sometimes just trying it—even once—can make that nagging fossil feeling go away. Even if you decide that it’s not for you, the experience of testing something new can still inspire ideas, new ways of thinking.

In the case of social networking technologies like Facebook, you may be surprised by just how much you enjoy it (there’s a reason Facebook has more than 400 million users—and 50 percent are over age 5). Be aware that while these online environments offer privacy settings, your information is not completely private. I recommend this litmus test:

Only post things that you would be okay with an employer reading.  Express yourself, but not with inappropriate humor or derogatory comments about colleagues, work, clients or friends. If you decide you don’t like the social networking experience, there are many other ways to build connections.

I call these experiences “technology lite.” Attend a tech trade show or conference, read the tech section of the newspaper or take your laptop to a coffee shop—you’ll be surprised at who you meet. Remember, trying new things is what keeps us young at heart.

Pamela Jennings, a performance coach, lives with her daughter in Greenwich, CT.

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