The first rule of Facebook is that nothing is ever private.
The second rule of Facebook is if your dad works for an IT company and you ask him to fix your computer, he's probably going to know his way around the machine enough to find out all the smack you talked about him on Facebook.
I think it's important that parents and children be connected through social networks as a way to keep the lines of communication open and to help children navigate the new media world. Savvy parents can share a lot of insight with their kids, but you've got to walk a very fine line as teens do want to keep things private.
Tommy Jordan was none too impressed with his daughter Hannah's Facebook activities. It seems she liked to talk smack about her family on her wall. She did it once and was grounded. When she did it again and daddy took her laptop out to the woodshed.
"That right there is your laptop, this right here is my .45.” (Jordan takes out his gun at 7:10 of the video below, but his soliloquoy leading up to the firings is worth listening to)
The video is called "Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen" and offers a little insight into just what might be in store for the digital era of parenting.
Decades ago you might have had your phone unplugged from your bedroom, your tv taken to the basement, your records confiscated. It would have been something between you and your parents and you could have bitched about it with your friends, but it would have mostly been a private battle.
In 2012, the battles are waged on Facebook walls, they're waged on YouTube and they go viral.
Jordan addresses the video to his daughter, but also adds that it's “for all her friends on Facebook who thought that her little rebellious post was cute, and for all you parents out there who think your, you know, kids don’t post bad things on Facebook.”
What do you think? Is Tommy Jordan up for "Father of the Year" or did he go too far?
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