英语名人堂：艾薇宾
Ivy Bean is perhaps the oldest user of social networking sites. She is officially the oldest person on Facebook and probably the oldest tweeter. She has become famous for her Twitter site IvyBean104. On September the 8th, 2009, her 104th birthday, Ivy had 38,670 followers. This makes her one of the most followed people in cyberspace! She said she preferred Twitter to Facebook because it was easier to update. In one of her birthday posts, she wrote: “I have just opened all my cards. It’s taken me 20 minutes.” She usually writes about things like getting her hair done, watching her favourite TV shows or eating fish and chips. The world’s media covered Ivy’s birthday. CNN and Sky News both wrote stories about her newfound fame.
Ivy Bean was born in Bradford, a town in the north of England, in 1905. She was one of eight children. She has seen huge changes in technology in her lifetime. Her first job was working in a cotton mill. The biggest innovation in her life then was the start of Britain’s telephone network in 1912. The first computers arrived in the world when Ivy hit half a century. She would have to wait several decades to actually use one. Before she found digital communication, Ivy won a gold medal in the Frisbee throwing event at the Bradford Over-75 Olympics. She also likes bowling on her Nintendo Wii. Ms. Bean said being famous hasn’t changed her, although she joked that her friends were jealous of her worldwide popularity.
