<p>I’m thinking of getting my own Facebook page. I read that Facebook’s fastest growing segment is age 35 and up and that Facebook will replace email and other resources in the near future. My college D has a page, but I haven’t checked out the logistics of getting myself one yet.</p>
<p>Does anyone here have a Facebook account and do you find them useful?</p>
<p>NO, I don’t think my kids would like that.</p>
<p>Sooz,</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t they like it? And why would that matter to you? My understanding of Facebook is that you only have access to others’s pages if they accept you in (similar to MySpace). You would not be able to access their pages unless they allowed it.</p>
<p>I also want to keep a free space between my son and myself. I have heard about kids getting “creeped out” by their parents going on to Facebook. I’m not a perfect parent, but try not to creep my son out.</p>
<p>Yes, I have a facebook page, and I was hoping to link up with old friends that way. Unfortunately, I can’t find anyone I know on facebook! My DS felt sorry for me when I complained that I had no facebook “friends”, so he invited me to be HIS friend. That was pretty cool of him, I thought. I try not to abuse the privilege, but I do peek at his page every week or so to see what he is up to.</p>
<p>I think facebook will grow more popular with adults as time goes by – so maybe I will eventually find some “friends”. :)</p>
<p>
The original Facebook generation are now adults, so it’s certainly true in that sense. Some of my professors or TAs who are graduate students have Facebook accounts. It’s a little strange because I can view their pages since we’re in the same network. I know a few adults over 35–people under that age may have been in school at some level when Facebook was developed–who have Facebook accounts, but it’s not the norm (yet). </p>
<p>I would not want to be “friends” with either parent on Facebook. That’s a definite social line.</p>
<p>Bay…I see it as my kids’ own social domain. It is not like there is stuff on it that wouldn’t be OK to see…like no secrets or bad stuff…but more that facebook has a wall and all these messages are left for friends and that sort of thing and it would be a little like listening in on their phone conversations. A couple of times when they were home they were perfectly willing to show me photobooks of their own and those of some friends that they know I’d enjoy seeing (these are all on facebook). But I don’t think they want me regularly peeping at their conversations with friends and all that. They are away and have their own life. However, my daughters share a lot with me and call frequently and tell us what is giong on in their lives and so that is good enough and about appropriate in my book. While I would love to read facebook, it would be like prying into their lives and the lives of their friends. I also see facebook as more for their generation than mine. I just need to have communication with my own kids and I can and do have it through cell phones, e-mail and one of my kids occasionally Instant messages. I don’t need webcams into their lives or to see facebook and all these other modern things. They are moving to independent lives and as long as they communicate frequently and share what’s going on in their lives, it is enough, for me, anyway.</p>
<p>I agree about the social line for parents, and it is one I don’t ever cross – I never, ever post anything on my son’s page. And he never posts anything of a personal nature there, so he doesn’t mind me seeing his page. It was never my expectation that he would list me as a “friend”, but he is a very thoughtful guy. :)</p>
<p>When I say adults, I am talking about my generation of adults – those of us with kids of our own in college. I think it is going to become a more popular way to link with college friends, etc. – but it definitely isn’t there yet, based on the skinny pickings in my alumni network!</p>
<p>I have a facebook page and my s is my only “friend”. My D says no way. Fine, cut her butt out of the will right now…</p>
<p>Acutally, I do check his site this way and find it kind of a nice way to catch up with him and what’s going on. I don’t post to his site to not discourage his buds. My kids are angels compared to me and my past and parties don’t send me over the edge of fear and reason. </p>
<p>I think knowing my two kids, my s isn’t concerned with me seeing what he’s doing. With my D it is more her friends and the drama of their daily lives that she wants me to avoid. Plus, she gets a certain buzz telling dad no, while she tells mom stuff. Not like her mother and I talk or anything… 
ah kids, go figure.</p>
<p>I guess it would depend on the parent and the relationship the child has with them.</p>
<p>“cut her butt out of the will” Hah! Very funny, Opie. Wouldn’t work with my kids, of course, since they have no expectation that we will have anything left to leave them, once we are finished paying for college for the three of them. :)</p>
<p>Ok, I think we are confusing 2 issues here. I am interested in Facebook for reasons completely unrelated to communicating with (or “creeping on”) my kids. Frankly, I’m not that interested in their and their friends pages. I’m talking about the using Facebook as a medium for communicating with MY friends and interest groups. With that in mind, does anyone have any experiences with Facebook (like orchid?)</p>
<p>Bay, that is my main interest in facebook, too. I am trying to convince my mother, my friends, etc. to join so that we can communicate that way. I have not yet been successful, but I think I will persuade them eventually.</p>
<p>I can think of several networks I would like to either join or create – booklovers, sewers, knitters, travelers, etc.</p>
<p>Bay, I am friends on Facebook with a few people from work. One woman created her account this summer, and she has two college-aged daughters. She joined our regional network since our organization doesn’t have a Facebook network.</p>
<p>Orchid, networks don’t work like that on Facebook. You used to have to join a college network (which would require you to be a student, employee, or alum), but now there are high school, workplace, and regional networks. You can also join with no network. Networks are not based around hobbies. “Groups” do exist, but they are usually for show only. They do not actively connect people or encourage communication, with a few exceptions.</p>
<p>“no expectation that we will have anything left to leave them”</p>
<p>the flip side to that is… “when your mother smartens up and throws me out, I’m coming to stay with you!” That gets her every time… :)</p>
<p>Besides If I used facebook Why in the heck wouldn’t I have my kids as friends? Both are a hell of alot smarter than me and we share alot of the same interests… just the other day I was on the Chuck Norris fan club site and… 
</p>
<p>I haven’t been blessed with alot of things, but I am blessed with my relationship with my kids…</p>
<p>Hah! I just found a sewing group to join: “I’ve sweared at my sewing machine.” Their diction is a little flawed, but I am definitely on board with their intent. Now I shall go search for a book addicts group – or perhaps start my own.</p>
<p>Opie, I am also blessed with my relationship with my kids. . .I am one lucky mom!</p>
<p>orchid you might like livejournal.com. There are groups for every interest.</p>
<p>I read live journal- but I don’t understand why [the Portland community is so much more active than Seattle](<a href=“http://community.livejournal.com/damnportlanders/”>http://community.livejournal.com/damnportlanders/</a>)</p>
<p>After all we in Seattle constantly are pushing at the antelope!</p>
<p>I have a great relationship with my kids too and I know everything going on in their lives because they choose to share it. Still, I think their “communications” with friends which is what goes on on facebook, they’d rather not think parents are looking in. It is not like they are hiding stuff they don’t want me to know but it is like listening in on their conversations. I always thought facebook was for college kids and their pals, though I guess it has opened up to anyone. My kids have shared the photos on it and have shown me it while they were with me. Actually, when my kid was home, she used this computer and I was able to access facebook by going into the history after she used it (bad, I know). So, ya know, I’ve seen it. There wasn’t anything secret on it that I didn’t know and the photos were fun to see. Still, I think they would not want me to be “watching” their walls and stuff that are not meant for parents, just like they would not want me on the line when talking on the phone. I haven’t joined facebook because I don’t think they’d want me to and I don’t have any need to other than to look at their stuff and I don’t think I should. I have never asked them. But that would be like the only reason to do it and they already share with me and so it is not a big deal. I see it as their thing with their friends. But if someone’s kids ARE fine with it, there is no problem. I don’t think mine would take so kindly to it but I never asked them and don’t have a reason to join.</p>
<p>My d-in-law invited me to join facebook a while back and so I did. My kids and my two d-in-laws “friended” me, some of my co-workers joined, several other adult members of our church joined, and many of my kids’ friends have also asked to be on my friends list. I also have family as far away as Australia with whom I communicate this way. I never ask anyone my kids’ age to be my friend, but have found that they ask me so, of course, I say yes!</p>
<p>The way it works is that people can see what others post on your “wall” , but you can also exchange private messages (much like here, actually!), though there is no limit.</p>
<p>My d was a member of a pre-professional dance company for years and now the artistic director of the company has a facebook page (she is a “friend” of mine) and many former dancers are getting back in touch with her and with each other through that. It’s a beautiful thing.</p>