It has been the topic of quite a few sessions at the pub with my mates lately….do you accept your parent’s ‘Friend Request’ on Facebook if they happen to pop up one day, unannounced, in your inbox?
I have heard many valid arguments for and against accepting your annoyingly-internet-savvy maternal or paternal figures as Facebook ‘Friends’.
And by all means, there is no right or wrong answer, as it is a decision left up to the individual based on their own circumstances and preferences. In fact, many people have specific criteria for Facebook friend acquisition. For example:
- - Over time it has become obvious to me, that some people choose to accept friends left, right and centre, to increase their friend stats in a meagre effort to portray their social standing (ironic, since one has have to sit at a computer alone for extended periods of time in order to achieve this).
- - Others accept friend requests for business or personal gain, in order to spread messages of relevance (pffft….losers!)
- - And then there’s those, (gulp), who connect with their ‘friends’ in order to do a little, ah, friendly Facebook stalking. You know the kind I mean – the, “I wonder how Sam from my year 11 maths class looks, I mean is going, these days?…..(half an hour later and 14 boring albums of photos later)….Whooah, looks like she never shook that habit of ordering two meat pies for lunch. Haha…..unlucky Sammy! “. After all, that’s why Facebook was invented, right? RIGHT? (Why do I hear only murmurs of disdain?)
Of course, aside from an individual’s Facebook Friend acquisition strategy , there are certainly also other factors that influence one’s decision, such as…
- - emotional considerations
- - secrecy
- - guilt
- - geographical location
- - public perception (i.e. “eeek….what will my friends think”)
Personally, I believe a large factor in a child’s decision (and I use the word ‘child’ in the sense of ‘offspring’, of any age) on whether to grant their parents ‘access’ to their Facebook world, is based on their long withstanding relationship with their parents. Kids who don’t encourage their parents into their ‘real world’ lives, are probably even less likely to accept their parents into their online lives.
Maybe I am just reading into it all too much, and we should all just bite the bullet and click the “Accept Friend” button. But then….what we have to talk about at the pub?
So it’s over to you Dad….what do you reckon about 2009 most talked about online predicament? From your point of view, is the decision to to accept a parent as a ‘Facebook Friend’ a moral dilemma, or merely juvenile concern?
(Stay tuned for the first round of the debate, or you can even subscribe to my RSS feed – as a response from my very own fatherly Facebook Friend will follow shortly…..)
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