My daughter had a swim lesson this afternoon. I went to pick her up and was chatting with her swim teacher. I mentioned my offense at her not having accepted the Facebook friend request I sent her earlier in the week. She giggled, first, and then tried to stifle her laughter. I said I was serious, and she said, wow, I never would have guessed! I asked if her surprise was because I was old hag, and she, who is not old, said, well, yeah, because she thinks of Facebook as a goofy thing for kids.
So are the old people full of it when it comes to our sense that FB is the next next big thing? Are we ruining it for the youngins who are just playing around and having fun? I’m reading the writings of a lot of people who I respect saying what an amazing OS and platform Facebook is…and it’s getting me caught up in the hype. I truly believe that it’s cool and can be a great tool to help me understand how my customers think, but I’ve been in this business enough to realize that it won’t last forever, and something will come along to usurp it.
Of course, I said that about Google and Amazon and never bought the friggin’ stock. Dammit.
Posted by jackyan on August 23, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I believe you are right. Facebook is a great thing. All it really needs is a partnership with a larger firm to keep its head above water—but the fact it has opened up its technology is a good way to battle the Murdoch Press with MySpace or Microsoft’s deal with Bebo. As a networking tool, I think it humanizes the people whom, prior to Facebook, only had their résumés to guide us.
Posted by Vicki H on August 23, 2007 at 2:28 pm
My own children won’t be my facebook friends. Now, their friends will be my fb friends. My nephews are my fb friends. My daughter’s boyfriend is my fb friend. But will my own children? Those ungrateful twerps!
Posted by Facebook lessons for parents « Confessions of an IT Girl on August 23, 2007 at 3:58 pm
[...] stalking your friend’s kids, you have a bit more work to do. Of course, as Vicki H. mentions in my previous post, it’s probably your kids’ friends who will add you before your own kids decide to do [...]