I Have my eye on your Status

I have a couple of things on my mind and honestly they are totally unrelated. First up, is our children and their outlets of expression. What has me on this topic is that one of my young cousins used Facebook as an avenue to blast her mother. It totally pissed me off because #1 it was ignorant and #2 it was completely disrespectful. Last week, there was a segment on the Today Show about parents "friending" their children and it highlighted a father-son relationship that had fallen apart over comments expressed and photos posted on FB. The son ended up deleting his dad as his friend. I informed my cousin that her child had completely dissed her on FB and that it was offensive to me as an adult as well as inappropriate. My cousin addressed her daughter and she came back with a rant addressed to me about how she thought this was an avenue she could vent and express herself and that now she would have to keep her feelings all bottled up and become depressed and yada, yada, yada. Honestly, if I lived in the same city, I'd probably would've tried to beat her young smarta$$. Don't even get me started on the fact that her mom said to me that she and the wayward child's father weren't allowed to be her(the child) friend on FB. WTF? Really now? She is a kid, on a laptop that her mom bought and paid for, being used in a house supplied by electricity and Internet connections that said mom pays for. Am I the crazy one here?

These children really don't realize how much these social networks can impact and affect their lives. Recruiters and potential employers scout these sites and use the information collected to make hiring decisions. I won't even discuss the potential pedophiles, bullies, and other sickos who use this information to target potential victims. At what point did expression of self become so important? At what cost? I am a parent attempting to instill character and morals to my children. They follow my rules as long as they live in my house. They don't have to like them, heck I don't like all the rules that I follow(I love driving fast). You only get one reputation and I am of the mindset that you should protect it at all cost. Never post anything that might come back to bite you in the butt. Save the cursing period, it is not cute and who the heck wants to read that crap anyway? What you put out there is a reflection of who you really are or the person you want people to perceive you to be.

So for those of you with children out there....are your children on FB? Are you their "friend?" How much monitoring of their page do you do? I have teens(usually children of friends) who are my "friends" on my page. I call them out if I see anything inappropriate, not because I'm the FB police, but because I am aware of the long term ramifications it can have. If I think they need to be encouraged, I do that too. I'd want the same for my child. It still takes a village to raise a child despite the fact that it seems less and less so each day. Occasionally, there is even the well meaning adult who gives questionable advice. That always pains me. How would you have handled the situation? Was I wrong? What do you think of all of this?

You know I said that I had a couple of things on my mind but I'm going to address my other issue in a separate post. I am too tired to blog it out. I love you all. I hope this week is treating you well. Peace!

Copyright April 21, 2010 by Pamela Cole Thorpe