Long story short: My fourteen year-old cousin has been peppering her Facebook status updates with the 'f'word. And as fourteen year-olds do, she changes her status quite frequently. It's bothered me and I was thinking how I would approach her. I'm sure it's impossible for kids (and adults) to understand the reach and permanency of the internet. So I wanted to offer a kind word of caution.
My concern was two fold. Not only that a future employer, college admissions counselor or the like might take offense to her flowery language, but also what is going to happen to a small town girl that easily uses such an adjective when hormones, boredom and rebellion escalate over the next few years.
So while I was having some phone conversation with her father, I casually mentioned what I had read. He had no idea and was surprised. We discussed and decided that I would send her an email and he would talk to her about it as well. Less than an hour later I sat down with my laptop to compose a quick message and guess what happened?
She deleted me as her friend.
She also deleted every other adult family member from her profile.
Problem solved, at least in the mind of a fourteen year old.
'F'me.
Monday, June 29, 2009
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9 comments:
I have been trying to figure out how to unfriend Darrell's family since I idiotically added them to begin with.
Not that she idiotically added you, of course.
Well, mlb, not to worry. They won't get a notice that you've deleted them. Go to the person's profile, scroll down. Left hand side. Teeny tiny button that says 'remove from friends'. It's f'n easy.
How do you know when someone unfriends you then?
I knew with her because I went to send her a message through FB and got the 'add as friend'. Another way, is to keep an eye on how many friends you have and if the number goes down, you've been deleted by someone.
I tried to add her as a friend again, bug no such luck. Maybe she's trying to get the Free Whopper?
UGH! I hate to think that I soon will have this problem. My kids won't be on facebook for a while and not without me having access to their stuff.
Whoops.
I friended a niece who is now in college, but was in high school then. She was vaguely appalled that I was participating...
You did the right thing! If her father had no idea, he needs to. Even if she deletes the adults, this will hopefully lead to more supervised internet usage. She is obviously demonstrating her need for it.
That's a tough one. Kids between the ages of 12 & 20 swear like sailors (in their own circles). I don't have any "friends" on Facebook under 25 so I haven't been in your position, but the youngest of my friends is my wife's younger sister who does swear and is immature as crap (she's 22). I think your problem has been solved.
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