One of the ultimate dilemmas of Facebook will forever be the “do I add my parents as a friend?” issue. This is a recent issue with Facebook because it was only recently that older generations began to get sucked into the black hole that is Facebook. Once this happened, children and parents both had a huge issue on their hands. Parents, to the horror of their children, began to friend their kids and kids friends and see their “true” lives through their pictures and statuses. On the other side, kids began to get friend requests from their parents, which would lead to an interesting conversation if they denied it. However, if they accepted, they would be leaving themselves very exposed.

So are you the same person with your family at home as you are on Facebook? I would have to say that while you are still the same person, different sides of you come out on Facebook. At home, while I was mostly honest with my parents, I never told them everything that I was up to. However, I do tell Facebook almost everything that I am up to, and if my parents had access to that, there might be some questions raised. Luckily, Facebook created a way tallow me to be like I am at my house, but online as well. By using the security settings to control what I let my parents see, I can be mostly honest with them, but at the same time not tell them everything. Because of these features that Facebook has, I think that they have done a good job of allowing people to create an online identity that is similar to that of their true identity. This is not to say however, that people don’t abuse Facebook and use t to create identities that are nothing like their true identities.

So having a family on Facebook is a different relationship to your family at home, but it can be made similar if it is used correctly. My parents know what it is I do which they may not be totally happy about, but as long as i don’t put it in front of their face (or in this case on their news feed), they will stay happy. At the same time, as long as I don’t see my mom posting what she is doing every 10 minutes, I am happy.