Believe your kids when they say they are NOT on MSN..
Its true, MSN has been replaced by FaceBook.
And what exactly is FaceBook?
According to the kids, its apparently a much safer medium than MSN Space or MSN Messenger.
Why? You have to be invited to participate in any community dialogue. Originally, created for Colleges in US, FaceBook is speading like wild fire across North American schools. My daughters have been invited to particpate in more than one school “community network” here in North Toronto.
So how does it work? First of all, its more secure than open community web boards. To use FaceBook you have to be invited by someone in the community. Much like all other communication mediums you provide details of your profile, upload pictures and FaceBook creates your own personal Wall Space. Once you are part of a community, anyone can invite you as a friend which allows both to see each others walls.
FaceBook is changing social norms between kids. Rather than exchanging cell phone numbers or emails, people can look you up by your name. Anyone of your “friends” can write on the wall but unlike Messenger, you are not obliged to respond immediately…and this is what makes it fun, according to the girls. It is very addictive as you can get hooked on checking to see whats new on your wall or feel compelled to check other’s walls.
Imagine what happens when the relationship with a “friend” changes ..your wall is open for “snooping” and nasty, unfound rumours can spread just as quickly.
So what does all this mean for our kids….time will tell. A big word of caution, I wasn’t too pleased with the Terms of Use for the Members! I am not a lawyer by any means..but becoming a FaceBook Member you automatically the company to use Members’ content posted on the site in just about any way. This of course is not something that any kid would be aware of or any adult for that matter..the option to view the Terms of Use is in such fine print, you might not even notice it.
Karin says:
I am Karin, very interesting article that contained the information I was searching for in Google, thanks….
August 14th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Victoria says:
Interesting, I think it’s easy to keep track of your kids/family on Facebook .. just join up yourself, you can network just by looking at others’ friends.
ps: you don’t need to be invited to join Facebook or most of its groups. You do need to be confirmed as a friend by the person you are requesting “friendship” with .. you don’t need to be a person’s friend to message them, however.
April 16th, 2007 at 11:51 am