Parents make good Facebook friends!
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.