The apparent phenomenon of parents joining the ranks of Facebook to be in on their children’s lives (or perhaps just to be “in”), has been largely criticized by members of the tweenage/teenage Facebook community.
A website devoted to the cause, named ‘Oh Crap! My Parents Joined Facebook’, features parents in computer screenshots of embarrassing Facebook conversations courtesy of submissions from their children. A Youtube video called My Mom’s on Facebook, opening with “You used to be a special place for all my college friends/a sanctuary in cyberspace, but every love story ends/Why did you have to go and lose your exclusivity?/Now all my nightmares have come true…my mom just friended me!” as starting lyrics.
A few days ago, we blogged about the popularity of this social networking site and offered tips on how you can integrate yourselves into your children’s Facebook lives. However, a recent revelation may prove that you are distancing the potential dangers of Facebook further from your children than you originally intended.
As announced in a Los Angeles Times article, Facebook is losing some of its younger fans due to the sudden surge in parent pages. According to a survey of 600 teens on online gaming site Roiworld, 1 in 5 are losing interest in the site. 16 percent of those teens claimed to be leaving Facebook because their parents are now fellow ‘contacts’ and 14 percent said the site is now overrun with "too many adults and older people."
Photo by m.klynstra of Flickr.
