Kids creeped out by their parents - and grandparents - showing up at Facebook
Age-ism online?
Scott Seigal was awakened one recent early morning
by a cell phone text message. It was from his girlfriend’s
mother…
His friends’ parents have posted greetings on his MySpace page for all the world to see. And his 72-year-old grandmother sends him online instant messages every day so they can better stay in touch while he’s at college…
Increasingly, however, he and other young people are feeling uncomfortable about their elders encroaching on what many young adults and teens consider their technological turf…
Gary Rudman, a California-based youth market researcher, has heard the complaints. He regularly interviews young people who think it’s “creepy” when an older person — we’re talking someone they know — asks to join their social network as a “friend.” It means, among other things, that they can view each others’ profiles and what they and their friends post.
“It would be like a 40-year-old attending the prom or a frat party,” Rudman says. “It just doesn’t work.”
Are you the Creeper or the Creeped?
His friends’ parents have posted greetings on his MySpace page for all the world to see. And his 72-year-old grandmother sends him online instant messages every day so they can better stay in touch while he’s at college…
Increasingly, however, he and other young people are feeling uncomfortable about their elders encroaching on what many young adults and teens consider their technological turf…
Gary Rudman, a California-based youth market researcher, has heard the complaints. He regularly interviews young people who think it’s “creepy” when an older person — we’re talking someone they know — asks to join their social network as a “friend.” It means, among other things, that they can view each others’ profiles and what they and their friends post.
“It would be like a 40-year-old attending the prom or a frat party,” Rudman says. “It just doesn’t work.”
Are you the Creeper or the Creeped?
Posted: Wed - January 23, 2008 at 10:39 AM