<p>Hi all. I am recently a new member to this site. I was searching through some previous discussions about teachers and facebook and myspace and I’m sure there are many more related to these topics. My son is a sophomore in high school and already has a facebook account. I initially was very upset at him, thinking he is way too young for this type of publication of his life, but as I have created my own account and learned to “navigate” through facebook an extremely minimal amount, I have found some links that are actually potentially educationally stimulating for him. A few examples of this are Connect at College or College Tips. Has anyone else interacted with these sites or links from facebook? Do you think there is credibility to them and that they perhaps help make facebook okay? Do your kids use any applications? I am just struggling with wanting to pull the plug on my kid with facebook and looking for reasons to give him this freedom that justify it in my mind?</p>
<p>I don’t think you need to justify Facebook, just keep an eye on it. As a social tool, I think it’s fine with certain guidelines. Among them in my house are that the profile must be set to private, no identifying information posted, and that I check all the time. I do check and haven’t seen anything from my kids that would concern me. Most of it is just chit-chat, making plans, which is fine, and posting of pictures from events and the like. I really don’t see anything wrong with that.</p>
<p>OP - there’s no cut-and-dry answer to this question. Too many variables.</p>
<p>I have a hs senior who uses her facebook account minimally. It’s a great tool for communicating with a lot of people For example, she can invite everyone at her high school to a recital and know an approximate head count on how many will and won’t show up. She signed on with her college’s facebook group, and has learned a lot about what she’ll be doing next year as a freshman. </p>
<p>I have a hs freshman who uses it way too much (in my opinion). But, if she’d rather chill out by reading at facebook rather than watching tv, that’s her decision. Her grades haven’t suffered.</p>
<p>I’m content for them to utilize facebook even if it’s not “potentially educationally stimulating” for them. I want them to have balance in their life - including mindless downtime.</p>
<p>EDIT: Yes, of course, they have the controls set to control privacy, as mentioned by zoosermom</p>