There are lots of inexpensive tools on the Interwebs that are really useful. I like finding them.

Facebook has come a long way from its beginnings in 2003.  The Facebook babble being generated over dorm room broadband Internet connections back then was certainly not for parent’s eyes.  In fact, Facebook effectively barred most parental participation; you couldn’t join if you didn’t have a college email address.  Its not that it was necessarily filled with obscene or shocking content; it’s just that it was more strictly a social connection tool within a private club primarily for college undergrads.  But as Facebook grows up, it is realizing a larger potential.  Its doors are now open for anyone to join, and it has become an extremely useful and versitile tool (about which I discuss in a previous post.)

Facebook is like the high school pothead that floors everyone at his 10-year reunion by arriving with a Porche, a fantastic career, and a hot wife.  Despite its success, it nonetheless struggles to shake the slacker image that lingers in the eyes of those it grew up with.  Therefore the thought of parents being included in Facebook friends lists is often repellent to most users, particularly to the twenty-something crowd that met Facebook when it still knew how to party.

My own parents were born in the mid-40’s and are currently not Facebook people.  They are computer-friendly people however, as my dad uses his computer and iPhone everyday, and my mom is a very regular email/Internet user.  I increasingly rely on Facebook as an extremely effective and useful way to exchange a broad range of information with people I care about.  If this is the case, why don’t I include my parents in the loop?  I have a few compelling reasons for me to encourage them to create an account:

• With my parents paying attention to my status updates throughout the week, it would give us more to talk about during our weekly check-in calls.  (This works the other way as well.  If your goal is to have less to talk about with your parents when you get around to calling them, giving them a view into your Facebook life could reduce their pries into your actual life.)
• Having access to my Facebook profile would give them a surprisingly large amount of information about what I do all day.  Details like these are hardly ever remembered and brought up on a phone call, but they would probably be very much appreciated by my parents.
• Facebook is making it increasingly easy to adjust exactly who can see exactly what in my profile.  So if I don’t want my parents to see my posted photos, I don’t have to let them.
• Even though they don’t know it, they have Facebook friends to connect with.  First, their friends are friending me with increased frequency.  Second, I’m sure Facebook’s amazing friend-finding tools would show both my mom and dad that a lot more of their friends are drinking the Facebook Kool-Aid than they think.
• Facebook could be a really great tool for them to use – they just need to take the short amount of time needed to sign up and discover that for themselves.

Now, inviting the parents to keep up with your Facebook self might require some permanent Facebook behavior changes.  I suppose it depends on your family’s dynamics, but you probably aren’t ready for Facebook parental supervision if:

• Your profile is filled with pictures of you drunk at parties;
• You regularly include expletives in your status updates;
• Your “friends” on Facebook are mostly just people with hot profile pics that accepted your friend request because they are friend collectors;
• You often share NSFW links;
• You regularly join overtly sexual Facebook fan pages.  I’m no prude, but personally I hate Facebook friends who overflow my newsfeed with messages telling me that they are fans of hot chicks or 2(x)ist Underwear.  I mean who doesn’t love both of those, but I bet most of these people have been blocked from their friends’ newsfeeds, and I’m sure their parents would do the same.

So go ahead – send your parents an invitation to Facebook (and a link to this blog post if they need further rationalization).  Facebook has grown up – why don’t you?

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