AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 20
Monday, October 20, 2008
OMG! Is that your Dad on Facebook?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I have my own page on Facebook - and that’s a phrase I never thought I would type into a work of non-fiction.
Apparently the social networking site that is so popular with those in high school/college has broadened its base to include those of us who remember the world before the internet.
For years I’d heard about Facebook but it was usually connected to some scandal. Or it was something my kids were into, not to mention their friends. The only time I saw Facebook was when Dr. Phil was doing a show on girls who wished they had never posted some naughty photos.
I started my page as a possible online marketing device, but it proved to be impractical for that. But by then I found that several of my friends had established pages as well. It was every kid’s worst nightmare - instead of getting busted by the folks mom and dad were joining the party.
For my generation it would have been like your parents pulling into Woodstock with the camper and inviting your friends in for vanilla wafers and lemonade while Hendrix was performing.
One of our daughter’s friends was aghast that I had been “allowed” to launch my own page. I didn’t know at the age of 52 that I needed a note from home. By the way, I did cut a deal with both kids before we linked pages. I would not growl at anything I came across on their sites. So far I’ve seen lots of pictures of college kids eating pizza, standing around at football games and other PG material.
Then again, they may have pulled anything that might reveal a tattoo that has not been mentioned, an open bar or a collegiate bacchanalia that was not mentioned in an e-mail home.
By the way, if you want to make your kid get the deer-in-the-headlights look in their eyes just start your own page without notice and then invite them to link to it. It’d be the next best thing to tapping a keg at the dinner table and offering them a taste - but Facebook is legal.
This all plays into my theory that the quickest way to eliminate something you don’t like in your kid’s life is not to preach against it, but take it on as your own. Adopt enough online networking sites, new music genres, fashion styles, etc., and pretty soon you kids will run for somewhere safe.
Like the library.
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