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114-year-old woman had to lie to join Facebook

Due to Facebook age limitations, newly tech-savvy Minnesotan Anna Stoehr had to lie about her age to join the social network.

Anthony Domanico
CNET freelancer Anthony Domanico is passionate about all kinds of gadgets and apps. When not making words for the Internet, he can be found watching Star Wars or "Doctor Who" for like the zillionth time. His other car is a Tardis.
Anthony Domanico

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The 114-year-old Anna Stoehr with Joseph Ramireza, her tech tutor. Video screenshot by Anthony Domanico/CNET

Anyone can lie about his or her age on the Internet, but Anna Stoehr actually had to, if she were to join her friends and family on Facebook. This newly tech-savvy lady's story is part of local news station KARE11's series "Boyd Huppert's Land of 10,000 Stories."

Stoehr is the oldest living person in Minnesota, and celebrated her 114th birthday on Sunday. She recently befriended Verizon sales representative Joseph Ramireza, a Verizon sales representative who sold an iPhone to Stoehr's 85-year-old son. Ramireza was so impressed with Anna that he made the 2-hour drive from the Twin Cities to Plainview, Minn., where Anna currently resides in a nursing home, to teach her how to email, search for things on Google, use Apple's FaceTime video chat and join Facebook, he told KARE11.

Joining Facebook didn't prove easy for Stoehr, though she can blame Zuckerberg and co. for that. Facebook doesn't let you choose a date of birth before 1905, and Stoehr was born in 1900. So she did what many people do on the Internet, and lied about her age, choosing 99.

Stoehr, with a little help from Ramireza, wrote a letter to Facebook to tell her tale, according to KARE11. When dictating the letter to Ramireza, Stoehr simply and eloquently stated her message: "I'm still here."

We've asked Facebook for comment. But more importantly, happy 114th (or 100th) birthday, Ms. Stoehr. You'll soon be Facebooking, FaceTiming and Googling with the best of us.