Father's Day Tuesday: To Facebook or not to Facebook?
Occasional Guest Dad Andrew Ratner is back with an account of his brief glimpse into the Facebook world of his daughter, who just left for college:
"After reading Jill Rosen's piece in the You & Your Digital World section last Tuesday about 6 1/2 reasons you're not too old to join Facebook, I didn't leap to join just yet. But I was thrilled when my younger son, after calling up his Facebook page, showed me several photos that my daughter had posted to her page of her first few days away at college.
She looked happy, like she had made several friends in her dorm and was fitting in.
I didn't feel like a voyeur. Quite the contrary, I was delighted to get a sense of her first week away at school in a way she probably couldn't communicate to me as well as she would to her friends on Facebook.
The photos were worth a thousand words. I'm still considering joining up, though I doubt she'd "friend" me onto her page anyway."
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Comments
if you were to be joining facebook not to "spy" on your children but for your own reason, one of them to be a easy low stress way for you and your children to communicate then by all means do. if you do join and you request an add from a child (or a spouse or loved one) and they ignore it or say no, then be be aware that there is something they are hiding. it may not be something serious, but it should be something of concern.
such methods of social networking can be a good way to learn if a student is having trouble with a certain class, or professor or the adminstation at a school. or a way to play a game such as oregon trail or anything goofy without having to pull them away from their friends or their own social life.
Posted by: dave z. | September 2, 2008 10:34 AM
As a recent college graduate, there are some students who do not care whether they are friends with their parent or not and there are some that would never want their parent on Facebook.
A College student may not be hiding anything, but may not want their parents hanging out where they do. I think it is more about boundaries and independence, than hiding something.
Posted by: DR | September 4, 2008 8:31 AM