About two weeks ago, I received an odd notice from my mom: “I’m going to join Facebook.”
My mom is 62 years old, knows little to nothing about computers or social networking and has scant business being on Facebook. Most of my concern, though, is that she’d end up being the only person to post on my Wall, which is really kind of sweet but really more embarrassing.
I did my best to talk her out of it, but to no avail. While at lunch one day, I got her friend request. The world had, without a doubt, changed.
The world, though, has a way of self-correcting, and this sometimes is true, even in the cyberworld. By the time I got back to a computer to approve her request, she had deleted her account. When asked about it, her explanation was simple: “I got on there and didn’t like the pictures or what things were saying. It’s not for me.”
I laughed.
And then I worried about what could have possibly been on my page to offend her in such a way she deleted her new account.
She later explained that she wasn’t comfortable with that much personal information being out there for the rest of the world, which helped calm my concerns (her fear of identity theft by damned, I guess).
Yesterday, though, I was slightly shocked to find her back on Facebook. I questioned her about it again, but by that time she was again backing out: “I’ve been playing around on the computer and I saw where (her name has been deleted to protect her cyberdentity) and Kevin Hall are friends. Whatever that means. I’m really not interested in being on Facebook. Computers bother me. Too many people know too much about a person. I’m not sure about all that.”
So, if you get a friend request from my mom, please reject it. It’s the best move for all of us.
So ... there I was 