Parents Just Don't Understand
The title of this post is stolen from a weekly segment on Collegehumor, run by a girl I have an unexplainable crush on. That’s neither here nor there though, the title was just appropriate for today’s subject matter.
Lately a lot of my friends’ parents, friends of my parents, older relatives, and most specifically my mom have created facebook accounts. In her defense she isn’t awful with computers. By comparison I was much worse with the postal system as anyone who ever saw the video of her yelling at me, while my head laid flat against the table after I completely butchered the addressing of an envelope. This video was only filmed a couple of years ago but I’ve since lost it. Sorry. That being said she’s good with what she knows of computers and the internet, but currently facebook is a grey area.
The prosecution presents Evidence-Item 1 (Is it just item? Is the word evidence in there at all? I watch a lot of Law And Order but I’m coming up blank on this one.) Anyway, Evidence-Item 1, a screen shot taken from her facebook when she left the computer on a couple of days ago:
It’s like someone shot facebook in its head with a shotgun and its brains were splattered across the screen.
Moms commented to me in reguards to the suggestive nature of some of my sister’s friend’s photos but requested they not be repeated, and I need to respect that. Although I’m sure if you talk to me privately you could coax it out of me, ladies? (D. Martin, 2007)
My sister’s facebook pics are pretty conservative by the facebook/the myspace standards. Still, my mom is concerned about having a 14 year old daughter constantly on the internet, and I’ll agree that it’s a reasonable one. I’ve found genuine concern often leads to hilarity though. This morning she asked me in a worried tone what Meltstreet.com was. She went on to explain that while paroosing my sister’s facebook she saw one of my sister’s friends that my mom knows had commented that she had seen pics of Heather up on Meltstreet.com and that she should check it out. At this point I already knew where this was goin and I was grinning like a moron, but I let her continue. She said the link brought her to a site with “a lot of pictures,”things in the background and things popping up.” She closed it because it looked “virus-y.” After getting yelled at for laughing at her ignorance I defused the situation by explaining facebook hacking and wall spamming, let her know it was a false alarm and that in the future she should really be more careful with what she clicks on.
I’m not saying that baby boomers shouldn’t be allowed to make facebooks, or explore the internet or send each other all of the ”What 80’s Song Best Describes You” Requests they want…I’m just saying that by being preoccupied with the dangers of the internet my mom subsequently opened up our computer to those dangers. I know when I’ve met my match and when I’m in over my head, which is why I don’t try to mail things anymore. I stay the hell away from the postal system.
