Facebook... officially lame

[Alidar Jarok]

Nope. Not a chance in hell. I give them their space, I'm by no means a "clingy parent".

That's probably the best way to handle it

If my parents friended me on facebook, I'd look very carefully into the settings to find out how much I could hide from them. It's not that I hide things by nature, it's just a separate world as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Searider Falcon]

My 73 year old grandmother friended me on Facebook last month. I have to admit, I was mildly horrified...mostly because I had to tweak a couple things to make my page Grandma-friendly before I friended her back. For instance, I immediately removed "agnostic" from my religious views...my ambivelnt views on Christianity is an argum...errr, conversation I really would prefer to avoid ever having with her.

I don't think she's visiting the site too often, though. Aside from a couple comments she received from a few other people right after she friended them, her page is mostly untouched and she never even finished completely filling out her profile.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

This is why I generally avoid popular social networking sites in general. I mean, who knows who's trying to track me down and kill me...?

 

[DeafPoet]

I'd quit Facebook (not that I use it much anyway) if my parents signed up. It'd be impossible to maintain a decent web of lies if that happened!

 

[Alpinemaps]

Mrs. Alpinemaps' aunt is on FB. Her aunt's teenage daughter, who just went off to college is also on FB.

Now, aunt is the 'cool mom', always trying to be friends with her kids. But 18 year old cousin, college freshman, is posting about the parties she's going to, etc. And her friends are posting photos and details, too.

I just wouldn't be comfortable reading about that stuff! No thanks!

My sister's are on FB, and I'm not really that comfortable with them being friends with me. (Fortunately, I have LJ to complain about them, without them seeing it)

 

[Mr. B]

Facebook jumped the shark when the college email requirement was lifted. As for parents, I have mine blocked. My account is very tame and light on info but I am not dealing with that mess.

 

[Mallory]

Nope. Not a chance in hell. I give them their space, I'm by no means a "clingy parent".

That's probably the best way to handle it

If my parents friended me on facebook, I'd look very carefully into the settings to find out how much I could hide from them. It's not that I hide things by nature, it's just a separate world as far as I'm concerned.

I think it's pretty much the only way to handle it. At some point, as a parent, you have to realize that your kids are adults now and entitled to their own lives. Sure, you can still help out if asked or offer to help when they have problems but if you haven't raised them to function in society on their own by the time they're in their 20's you screwed up somewhere along the line.

If either one of my daughters asked me to friend them, I'd consider it (not saying I would though) but I'm certainly not all butt hurt because they haven't. I raised them to be independent.

 

[Daneel]

The only relatives I have as friends on Facebook are my sister and cousins, which doesn't bother me at all. If my parents joined the network, I don't think I'd let them add me. I don't really have anything on my profile that I feel I'd need to hide, but they're my parents, not my friends, and I'd prefer to keep my family life and social life separate -- for the most part, anyway. I'm on pretty good terms with my parents, but I don't think they need to keep up to date on everything I decide to post on Facebook -- as others have said, that might be a bit too clingy.

I don't think I have much to worry about, though -- my mom only figured out how to use e-mail a couple years ago, and she still hasn't completely mastered it yet. I doubt she's planning on joining Facebook anytime soon.

 

[Garrovick]

"Facebook... officially lame"

Yep, the OP got it right. Facebook IS just plain out lame. Period.

 

[Guartho]

The thing is I let just about everyone else be my friend. My pastor is the one that invited mom... grrrr. My father works for me and my Mom comes in to to watch my daughter. I'm 26 and I see my parents every work day. I don't want them invading my virtual space!

 

[Gertch]

I friended my step-son (21 yo). Never knew what a trash mouth he is outside the home. Not like I can spank him though.

 

[Markas]

I don't care who finds me there. If they don't like what they see, it's their own damned fault.

 

[sidious618]

My mom tried to friend me. I told her no.

 

[Goji]

On a related note, I have actually refused to tell some people my last name, because I know if they knew it they would find me on facebook and add me.

I know it would probably be easier to just delete my account or something, but that would require actually logging into facebook and messing with it. I'd rather just continue ignoring it.

 

[RoJoHen]

My mom is too busy spying on her students' mySpace pages to bothering with Facebook.

My mom has just recently tried to learn how to text message me, and that's even going too far.

 

[the_wildcard]

Time to cancel your Facebook account, ASAP lol

 

[archeryguy1701]

Besides my little sister, no one else in my family is on FB, and even the sister and I haven't friended each other. It was kind of funny though... this thread prompted me to search my parents, and while they aren't on, there is a couple in Georga with the same first and last names as my parents! Which was even more unlikely considering that my dad's last name was an "Ellis Island Special"!

However, I am glad that FB is letting just any one on now. One of my adult running buddies out of a nearby town signed up recently, and since then we've become really good friends... we've been talking a lot more, and I've been getting a lot of help for my ultratraining.

 

[Ashu]

I'd quit Facebook (not that I use it much anyway) if my parents signed up. It'd be impossible to maintain a decent web of lies if that happened!

If you want, my pepere (grandpa) has facebook.

 

[Hermiod]

On a related note, I have actually refused to tell some people my last name, because I know if they knew it they would find me on facebook and add me.

I know it would probably be easier to just delete my account or something, but that would require actually logging into facebook and messing with it. I'd rather just continue ignoring it.

Just use the privacy option to hide yourself from searches. Oh wait, I forgot, it's hideously bugged and doesn't always work.

 

[TheSeeker]

I have my mother, grandmother and three aunts on Facebook. Now that I'm more or less and "adult" graduated from college and in the workplace, I actually like it. It's not like they going to "catch" me doing something, lol-- but you're quite right, Facebook has gone from "cool" to just another way that people communicate and stay in touch. I'm glad it's the latter.

My fiancee and I joked that nobody considered us officially dating until it was "facebook official"

Yeah, my Mother, Father and a bunch of Aunts and Uncles are on Facebook and I find it a great way to stay in touch since I am living overseas.

I really don't see what the big deal is. I don't act any differently on facebook than I do in real life. From day one my philosophy was that I wouldn't post anything online that I wouldn't want my Mom to see.