Invasion of the Bandwidth Snatchers: How Adults are Taking Over Facebook
Alex Baker
September 11, 2009
Filed under Opinions and Views
Recently, it seems that Big Brother is not the only person whose watchful eye is trained on you. Based on several recent studies from prominent research groups, the number of people over the age of thirty using the social networking site, Facebook, is growing by 200 percent per year. This is a considerable increase and some students may even deem it disconcerting.
Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerburg and some of his Harvard classmates as a way to communicate with each other across campus. Once upon a time, Facebook was only open to people that were in college, but, since 2007, anyone that has an e-mail address and is over the age of thirteen has been able to join the website. Presently, Facebook has 250 million members, and most are under the age of twenty-five.
It is apparent that more and more old people are joining Facebook and you may be asking yourself, “WHY, WHY, WHY?”
Well, let’s calm down for a second and try to see the situation from the perspective of the adults. There are countless groups of people, over the age of thirty, discussing and justifying their reasons for joining the website. Older people often join Facebook to see constantly updated pictures of their grandchildren and other relatives. This was the case of seventy-six year old Millard Carriker who recently joined Facebook and discussed his reasons in the discussion topic “You’re over 40!!! So why did you join Facebook??????”
People that aren’t old enough for grandchildren join Facebook to connect with long lost friends from high school, hometowns, etc.
History teacher Mr. Gill is a big fan of Facebook.
History teacher Rick Gill has a Facebook page that he constantly updates and he said that he decided to join the website because of the constant suggestions from his students. Mr. Gill says that he thinks Facebook is “really cool,” because he can connect with both current and former students in ways that he can’t at school. Mr. Gill also communicates with past friends on the social networking site and has even found an old fraternity brother from thirty-three years ago.
Adults also join Facebook because they are intrigued by the extreme popularity of the website. So much hype has been generated by the media it would almost be impossible not to be curious about Facebook.
Most concerning to some students, parents use Facebook to keep tabs on their children. This is not always true, but, in many cases, it is. Many parents comment on their child’s wall everyday and this can easily get on the teenager’s nerves. This point is best illustrated by a Verizon Wireless commercial that has aired recently. In the commercial, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, confront their parents about their use of social networking sites. The girl says to her mother, “Mom…just because we’re Facebook friends does not mean you can write ‘I love you,’ all over my wall.”
This one statement epitomizes the feelings of all teenage Facebook users who are friends with their parents.
Many young people on Facebook are adamantly opposed to older people using the website, while other teenagers couldn’t care less. Those who are opposed are usually concerned about an invasion of privacy by the adults.
If you are concerned about your privacy, then there are steps that can be taken to prevent any such invasion. In the privacy settings of the website, it is possible to choose which of your friends see things on your profile such as status updates and pictures. Senior Austin Long says, “Aunts, cousins, and uncles on Facebook don’t bother me. But, if my parents joined I would find that awkward and I would probably censor some of the things I put on the website.”
Personally, I am friends with at least ten adults on Facebook. These friends include my dad, the pastor of my church, his wife, my youth minister, some of my friends’ parents, and several teachers. Admittedly, I restrict some of what these people can see, but I am not opposed to these older people using Facebook because, overall, Facebook is a social networking website and its sole purpose is to connect people with other people.
(Feature photo courtesy of Time Magazine )
Parents on Facebook do cause some kids to worry, but there are ways of dealing with nosey parents.
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That was really well written! I loved it!
Chad said he did too 
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