Facebook has crossed the canyon. And Twitter is following the same trajectory. The time is now to start using Twitter if you want any privacy.
The penny dropped recently when, after having an increasingly common war of words with my turning-12-on-Saturday son, I updated my Facebook status,
“Hugh is pretty fed up with the tween ‘tude.”
26 minutes later came the first comment on my status,
“I’m pretty fed up with dad.”
More interesting and unexpected were the subsequent status comments and even direct emails from other parents with teenagers, tweens and below. I was surprised by the cyber empathy and advice. That’s when it struck me: “There is no privacy. Transparency is good for government. It’s bad for parenting.”
I can’t be honest on my Facebook status. I can’t say, “At GameStop buying Halo Wars for Jack’s birthday.” I positively cannot use FB to promote this blog posting. But with Twitter, at least in the near future, I can share what I’m doing and more. I can Tweet my location and search for other new game recommendations, like MLB 2K9, and get real time, conversational feedback, anonymously . . . well, at least without my children knowing what I’m doing. You see, I CAN BLOCK THEM! How great is that!?
So let’s go parents, let’s help each other out using Twitter to share advice and tips so we don’t feel so alone navigating this challenging course called parenting. We can’t stop technology. But we CAN harness it to serve our needs too. For now, I am safe. Facebook and SMS are the tools of choice for my kids. Twitter will be our little secret.
And for more info on that Twitter trajectory, read this:
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