I was just watching the news and a clip of a press conference came up of an angry mother who was telling everyone that if you child has nothing to hide then they should let you be their Facebook friend. This made me thinking, do kids really have to "friend" their parents on Facebook. Isn't Facebook sort of the modern day diary? I'm 28 so there was no Facebook when I was younger, I had diaries. So isn't friending your parent like handing them a pass to see your diary? I think it is. You're not necessarily going to put your deepest darkest secrets on Facebook, but kids surely get close enough. When I was working at a school I would see kids pages that had pictures of them drinking and much more that would completely frighten me if I was a parent. I think kids are doing way more than they should and their parents should do better policing of them but I do not know if being their Facebook friend is really going to make a difference. I see it from both sides. Parents should absolutely want to know what is going on in their kids lives but I think this is where they need to do better parenting and help their children trust them so that they can talk to them. Don't scare your kids so much that they won't talk to you and don't be their best friends so that they do not fear you. Bottomline is that Facebook is not the answer and it won't give you all the answers that you need.
3 comments:
I am not a parent but I would insist on being connected to my child on Facebook.
Facebook is not a "diary". Facebook is a platform being provided by a company whose agenda it is to own as much of your identity as they possibly can. It took me some doing to grasp that and I was in my early 30's when I started using these tools heavily.
It would not be out of a desire to control every single thing they did, only to protect them from THEMSELVES and keep them from making mistakes that could have implications in the future that they may not yet fully understand.
My humble two cents.
This is where kids need to be aware of. Facebook is a platform for getting in touch with your friends or known ones whom you have not been seeing quite often. Posting too much personal things is not quite the right place to share.
As far as sharing with parents is concerned there might be some hesitancy among kids. And parents can provide this freedom to them. A nice small talk with kids won't require to share their facebook account.
This can be a matter of debate which can go on for days. The way Facebook is been used these days no one would like to have their parents add as their Facebook friends. But youngsters also need to be careful using this social networking site.
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