Number one daughter, Katrina, showed me a new icon she had just installed on her iPad.
It had a lower case f surrounded by a blue box.
Oh boy.
Katrina had just had her 13th birthday a few days previous, and she reminded me that I said she couldn鈥檛 have Facebook until she reached their minimum age, 13. In other cultures, you become an adult. In ours, you can join Facebook.
Katrina had also worked very hard over the weekend, cutting grass and scrubbing various vehicles with gusto. Maybe she was killing the always useful, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 reward bad behaviour鈥� tactic. Alright, it was time to give in.
We had some missteps with her first encounter with social media, Instagram, and that resulted in her account being wiped and creating a new account later. But she seems to have found her groove with that. As for SnapChat, my response remains, 鈥淗ell no! That鈥檚 designed specifically so parents don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going on.鈥�
It鈥檚 a non-starter.
As for Facebook, I started with the rules: You friend mom and dad first, and you never hide anything from us. You don鈥檛 post anything that you wouldn鈥檛 be proud to show your grandma (whom she friended third) or a boss, and you don鈥檛 click like on everything you see. Only friend people you know in real life. I also get full access when I so choose, and keep your privacy settings high.
A few minutes later I returned to find Katrina and Spencer laughing uproariously at the photos they had found I had posted over the years. I don鈥檛 know if I had ever heard her laugh so hard or obnoxiously in my life. They particularly found a picture I took a couple years ago amusing. I had spent the day sanding paint while shirtless, and I was covered in dark dust from top to bottom. I did one of those selfies in the mirror that is apparently the in thing with younger, attractive women, except that my extra 50 pounds made my belly look like a dirt-lined basketball. I commented, 鈥淎s an answer to all those duck face cheesecake selfies, this is a hard workin鈥� man selfie. Spent the day sanding the entire deck after I painted the garage door. I look like I came off the 4020 after a day of harrowing.鈥�
I guess there鈥檚 a new rule: don鈥檛 post anything you don鈥檛 want your daughter or son to see, either. That includes years later, too.
It鈥檚 difficult to escape the social media world when raising kids now. I鈥檝e had Facebook for something like 10 years now, and since I鈥檝e worked at home for nearly all those years, it鈥檚 often been one of my few social outlets. It鈥檚 allowed me to remain somewhat sane as a social human being.
For Katrina鈥檚 cadet squadron, the unit鈥檚 Facebook page is its primary method of disseminating information, and it works very well. When I was an officer from 2001-2008, we could never assume that every family had something as simple as email. Today, internet and smartphones are so prevalent that one might think the world revolved around them.
Facebook鈥檚 recently added live streaming feature had a huge impact on how I gather news. Working for an industry newspaper, two hours away from Regina, I was often overlooked when it came to the daily goings on in the capital, some of which had a direct impact on my beat. But now there鈥檚 much less need to attend a scrum in Regina, as I can watch them live on several different streams. I can鈥檛 ask a question this way, but for many of these items, the obvious questions are already asked by those present. Additionally, I can often watch a whole, unedited press conference, pulling out the things I need that others might edit out.
I鈥檓 sure we鈥檙e going to have our trials and tribulations along the way with a teenager on social media. But what isn鈥檛 a trial or tribulation with a teenager in the first place? She鈥檒l make mistakes, we鈥檒l make mistakes. But we鈥檒l learn from them. No matter what, we can鈥檛 pretend it doesn鈥檛 exist.
That also means, for the parents, our kids are in the audience, too. Oh happy day.
