Parents joining Facebook

Jon • 10th Jul 2009 • news • facebook

The “parents joining Facebook” phenomenon just happened to me! I was searching around Facebook one day and found that both my parents had joined. Was I suprised to see it? Yes. Do I care? Not really.

I guess I am some of the lucky ones who don’t have any real secrets from my parents. I don’t share every photo with my parents but, if they stumble across any of the photos of me, I wouldn’t think much of it. Actually if the photo was embarrassing or or showing me in a altered state of mind, my parents would get a kick out of it.

Finding my parents on Facebook was nothing compared to getting a friend request from a ex-girlfriend. I hadn’t spoken with her in 4+ years and unexpectedly one day I had a friend request from her. I learned that day that there is a feature on Facebook called “Limited Profile”. With limited profile, the person can see very little of your profile (you can specify what exactly). Another useful feature on Facebook is the ability to filter who can see what. You can also limit photos of you (tagged and/or ones you post) to direct friends, friends of friends, or your network (e.g. your college, hometown, high school, etc.). So their are two easy legitimate ways to keep your parents from seeing what you don’t want them to see.

What Happens When Parents Join Facebook – TIME.