Yo!
This weekend I finally entered 2007 and got a Facebook page. My kids have had pages for awhile, and I would occasionally peek over their shoulder to see what was going on, but I thought that stuff was just for teens.
Then I started getting requests from friends to join their friend lists. These were adult friends, mind you. And I'm using the term "friend" in the loosest possible sense of the word. I mean, in the once-I-met-you-when-I-visited-my-sister sense of the word. Otherwise known as the I-obviously-just-went-through-my-email-address-book style of adding friends.
Is there some sort of contest I should know about? Who has the most contacts listed in the their friend page? As I browsed through my kids contact pages, it was like a little walk down memory lane.
....Kids I used to coach in volleyball ... Hannah's best friend from middle school ... those scouts that The Brain used to take camping..... How old would those boys be now?
COLLEGE SENIORS? My teenage daughters are networked with COLLEGE SENIORS? I was going to freak out about middle schoolers being networked with high schoolers!
In case you don't know this, you can browse through anyone's friend list without their permission. You can see all their pictures, and see info on how they know each person.
Anyway, on Mimi's page there were the expected cousins and friends, as well as the COLLEGE SENIORS, and several parents of her friends. Technically our family rule is that you must know someone in person to add them to your page. (Hopefully preventing the unknowing conversation with the 40 year old guy living in his parent's basement, posing as a friend of a friend....)
(note to self: rethink family rule about Facebook friends. Maybe add something about being within FIVE YEARS of your own age)
You know how after you graduated from high school, you pretty much never saw those people again? That will likely never happen to our kid's generation. Texting. Email. Facebook. And I know I'm sounding like my grandfather here, but I fear for this generation. I think I prefer the old way. Just give your friends a hug, promise you'll never never never lose touch, then put them on your Christmas Card list. Unless you lose their address. (Not that I'm talking from experience.)
Of course, that's coming from someone who remembers the olden days ... when you could only get cartoons on Saturday morning, and Pluto was a planet.
20 comments:
I just got a facebook account a few months ago too... It's crazy, but fun too.
I'd add you to my list, but we technically don't know eachother so I wouldn't want to go against any family rules. :)
Oh. My. GOSH! Heather! It never occurred to me that you might be a 40 year old man in your parent's basement. No wonder you know so much html! Do you play Guitar Hero too?
I have had facebook for a while but I don't have any friends or do any correspondence, just monitor. I know, it's brilliant.
You need to do a quick crash course in "facebook privacy settings" and enforce them among your children as you see fit. By default, everything is completely in the open - personal info, friend networks, wall, etc. I provide just enough public information that a person can say "hey, I know that person." It is possible to go so far as to say "no one in the world except my approved friends can view anything on my profile."
Yes, for some people it is a game to see how many hundreds of friends the can accrue. I try to keep mine trimmed to about 50 people - those I really care about, those I see monthly, and those who would be hurt to not be one of the former. For the most part, the "hundreds" people rarely notice when I reject their friend request or remove them from my list.
It wouldn't hurt to quiz your kids (as much as they will hate you for it). Who is this? How do you know this person? I'm 3rd year grad student and I'm networked to a few girls back home who are just in high school, so there might be a good reason.
But really. Make sure that their profiles can NOT be found by search engines and are NOT freely open to the public or to "anyone in the network" (anyone can join any network they well please).
It's actually possible to set your privacy settings so people can't see your friend's list, profile, or any of that. I'm on facebook but I can't stand it. It's such a pale imitation of the blog world, in my opinion. More bells and whistles and less substance. =) At first I accepted friend requests from anyone who had so much as waved to me in high school, but I pared it down to people I...you know, actually know and like.
I'm on facebook and have been forever (or so it seems). It started as a way to stay in touch with one friend and kind of has exploded here recently. All of my YW are on there and I can keep an eye out. Hubby is on there, too.
I didn't know that everyone else was...I started right out of college. Does that make me seem young or old?
Honestly, it's not the younger generation I'm worried about, it's ME!! I still have an answering machine and barely got basic cable a couple of years ago. I don't even know how to use the call waiting on my cell phone. I long for the days when we could all just be impressed that we can fly from one side of our country to the other in a few short hours!
I don't know if I would even want to connect with people from high school. Blogging's enough for me right now. I don't think I need anything else to consume my time.
facebook was so much fun for three weeks. now i log on every other week, to 'poke' back people who have 'poked' me. ugh.
I don't have a facebook account and don't want one. I know all the people I want to know. MySpace has totally turned me off on all of that stuff. It's so ghetto. I think of MySpace as sort of - white trash blogging. Or something.
Did I remember correctly that you read Uglies, Pretties, and Specials awhile back? There is a sequel out called Extras. It's all about this kind of thing. Of course if you DIDn't read them, never mind........
Sounds like I need to research the privacy settings and get something going there.
And anyone who wants to, you know, "friend me" or whatever it's called, send me a private email!
Earl, I didn't read them but my girls did. I'd like to, though. Maybe I can get to them over Thanksgiving!
I am officially lame. I don't have facebook nor have I ever even really seen it. Yep, it's official. I am uncool.
I think I'll just stick with my reading and bloggin for now.
randi,
you are the bomb. you are one of my favorite people absolutely! you are better than chocolate :)
hope your day is great hon, kathleen :)
I looked into facebook at one time and then I thought... "Do I really need/want to add something to my life that will keep me on the computer for MORE time?" I walked away ;)
good idea. walk away. stay away from the dark side. tee hee.
hope your night is great like you hon, kathleen :)
ps. come share something with me? a first. so excited. i posted about it this morning. share it with me. can't ya see my smile from here? you are still da bomb, my friend :)
I think you're a genius, starting your own account. It will give you so much more insight about what your kids are doing/seeing on there!
hi randi,
i finished my first fiction short story this morning and posted it this morning. i gave up sleep to finish this. this was so fun writing this over these last few days. what a rush. come and share it with me. hope your day is so cool. eek, gotta run to work now. you're still da bomb, kathleen :)
I'm on facebook and mainly did it just to check it out. It has been fun to keep in touch with friends who've moved away--sometimes it's easier than e-mailing for a lot of people. Also, some of my seminary kids keep in touch that way, so it's been good.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Facebo*k. I am so addicted to it it's not even funny. I heard one of my classmates say that "Facebook is the myspace for adults."
Janell: My settings are all private and I only add friends who are people I ACTUALLY do know.
Kristen: That's why I haven't gone to myspace. Part of it is just that I do not want to, but the othe part is that I know it will consume even MORE of my time. I spend too much time on facebo*k as it is! :) And, I wish I had more friends from h.s. on mine. I have only 2. :(
Post a Comment