Help, my parents are on Facebook!

2014

We can hardly believe our eyes in some of our parents' Facebook comments!
Photo: Mika / Corbis

I like it?!

If Mutti fixes our ex and embarrassingly posts Papa ... The generation 60 plus wants to be close to their children via social network - with bizarre consequences.

She did not really write that right now! Or? Yes, she has! Only a few seconds ago, the new profile picture is uploaded, because she is already popping up: the little red One of horror. And of course the first comment comes from Mama. "Do you see, Mausi, it was good that you had your ears laid out at that time", is written in capital letters (she has accidentally pressed the caps lock!) Under the photo. Is it still possible, Mama ?!

When we post a new profile picture on Facebook today, we no longer just hope for as many "likes" as possible from our friends. But above all, please, please do not get any embarrassing comments from our parents . Because even those have now arrived on Facebook. And so we are no longer meeting only old school friends or new colleagues, but more and more often mom and dad.

But before we complain about it - let's be honest: Were it not we who showed mom how to upload a profile picture? And dad have set up his account in the first place? Okay, guilty. It's kind of irritating that our parents - despite technical difficulties - try to join the social network trend . And we just want to be closer to it. Want to participate in our lives. Our joys. And our little worries and needs. But it also has its pitfalls, if mom and dad want to make friends with us on Facebook. So what to do: Accept (do you really want to be "friends" with your parents?) Or reject them (how nasty is that ...)?

Once connected with mom and dad, however, we always have to reckon with the worst. And that does not mean that parents just love to push the "Like" button first and foremost. For example, blunt comments put on the wall by our parents really make us sweat. Or baby photos on the timeline, where we crawl naked through the bathroom. Or even better: teenage pictures on which we get spanked celebrating our driver's license. It is only partially funny, if the sweet colleague knows now that we have worn at 14 years a fixed braces and pot hairstyle. Or that dad still calls us "somersault".

On the other hand, the sometimes most embarrassing situations "by mistake" - or technical incomprehension arise. If, for example, out of curiosity instead of typing in the Facebook search window, Dad typed the name of our new colleague in the "What are you doing" field below. And that makes it clear for everyone to read on his whiteboard. Since Dad's "search" for him but without result, he tries it again ... and again ... and again. After ten name entries in a row, the embarrassment is perfect.

Mama has already done that - when she wanted to look at the profile of our ex-boyfriend "just to see what kind of guy that left you there". And, hops !, clicked on the friend request . Nooooo, leave that alone !!!

Especially such "oversights" are probably the reason why studies would say that one third of all children would end their friendship with their parents on the net - if they did not notice.

But: Of course we know that mom and dad just want to join us. Earlier in the riding hall, today just in the net. And now we have a symbolic "thumbs up" - clearly visible to all!