Scott Seigal was awakened one recent early morning by a cell phone text message. It was from his girlfriend’s mother…
His friends’ parents have posted greetings on his MySpace page for all the world to see. And his 72-year-old grandmother sends him online instant messages every day so they can better stay in touch while he’s at college…
Increasingly, however, he and other young people are feeling uncomfortable about their elders encroaching on what many young adults and teens consider their technological turf…
Gary Rudman, a California-based youth market researcher, has heard the complaints. He regularly interviews young people who think it’s “creepy” when an older person — we’re talking someone they know — asks to join their social network as a “friend.” It means, among other things, that they can view each others’ profiles and what they and their friends post.
“It would be like a 40-year-old attending the prom or a frat party,” Rudman says. “It just doesn’t work.”
Are you the Creeper or the Creeped?
Well, that’s just tough.
I didn’t know there was a age limit to the internet. Next thing they will be saying….. HEY OLD MAN GET OFF OF MY INTERNET. lol
That’s the problem with social networks. If younger kids start to get weirded out by the older generation being their ‘friends’ and being on those sites, they’ll probably jump to the next latest social crazed site of the moment. geosites, livejournal, friendster, myspace, facebook, and then whatever comes next.
It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. The 18 year olds soon become 23 year olds with jobs and not as much free time to twitter or use facebook and myspace. They might use it to keep up to date with old friends, but as people get older and actually work for a living, facebook and myspace become just another way to stay connected instead of a cool place to hang out online. It’s fun for a moment, but after awhile you start to realize, there ain’t much going on at those sites except for a lot of ‘marketing’ hype.
And the next 18 year olds and so on will go someplace they like, not someplace they will be afraid their grandparents or uncles and aunts check for updates on them.
That’s the problem if Social networks start acting like they know it all and are gods gift to humanity.
Just look at famous young celebrities with very little substance. Eventually they get older and become a joke that nobody really cares about anymore. Yeah people might still see what’s going on, but at the end of the day kids don’t stay young forever and people grow up and are replaced by other kids who are the next generation. A next generation who supports and falls in love with somebody else.
For every band like the Beattles, the Stones, and so on there are a billion other bands who were one hit wonders that most young kids have never heard of.
For every Brad Pitt or Robert Redford or Al Pacino there are a million others who were popular for the moment but soon faded and most young kids have no clue who they are.
Most of these social networks aren’t that different because the reality is, none of them really have any substance. As soon as people start to think it’s no longer cool, they’ll jump someplace else.
@PJAM3 – Let me edit your post down for you:
Social network sites are teh suck.
As a cranky Baby Boomer, here’s my response to creeped-out kiddies:
Fock ya if ya can’t take a joke! đ
It’s not the age that makes the kids feel creeped out. It’s the unbearable behaviour of some old people.
Wow.. Is it me or does Mr Dvorak look really well in that picture.. Must be all that time he spends on MySpace.
jeepers, creepers, where d’ya get them internet peepers???
Poor babies.
They have to share the Wii with grandma and the interconnect with granpa.
I suppose they would like old people to use pulse telephones connected to the wall with a crank as well instead of cells?
Or perhaps the old folks need to return to the horse and buggy instead of a new sportscar?
BITE ME!
Before long they will be looked upon as geezers by the 9-12 year olds that think they are posers.
Welcome to the real world younglings.
Cursor_
I think I just pooped my pants.
Are young people really that stupid? This needs to be encouraged! We need to get dad and granny (particularly granny) into the internet so that when the gov’t starts fuckin’ around trying to shut large sections of the internet down or the various and sundry religious busybodies try to censor everything, the largest voting bloc in the US will come out and fight them. Right now the attitude of the majority of the elderly is “I don’t understand it, I don’t use it, I don’t care.” However if granny likes face book and all of the sudden proposed legislation threatens to interfere with granny’s entertainment, she’ll be pissed. So hook the elderly into this. Get them on our side for once!
Maybe knowing Pa and Ma might look at their myspace page will keep them from posting stuff that is going to come back and haunt them when they hit the job market.
I don’t think the problem here is one of age, but that kids don’t want their parents to see their comments section. Janey doesn’t want her father to see that her friend Suzy posted, “hey, you ready 2 go get crazy 2nite? ive got some sweet herbage,” and Johnny doesn’t want his grandmother to see his friend Fred posted, “that was some party last nite i was so wasted. who was that girl u left with? she let u pee in her butt?”
The simple solution would be to use a tiered social network, with an inner circle reserved for friends, and an outer circle for the non-embarassing stuff that family members can see.
Please. We old folks invented that technology.
From the article:
This is a good thing because all those young people who are using such sites honestly believe they’re acting in some sort of bubble. That only they can see what’s going on and no one else can. That’s why we have criminals getting arrested and teachers being fired for posting on the net.
Maybe now they’ll learn this valuable lesson: If you put something on the net everyone, yes, even your grandfather, can see it!
BTW, great picture Ed!
Hey! You damn kids get off my lawn!
Yeah, the kids thought they had this “Internet” toy all to themselves. Little do they know, that senior citizens are a group of computer and Internet users that have become larger over the course of time, because they are retired, and looking for something to do in their spare time.
Maybe the geezers can help to keep the kids in line. Heck, their parents don’t.
: ) I just have to smile. The world isn’t just created for young folks. Is it? : )
I have a lot customers over 50 and they are very tuned in to the internet. It seems the internet is what everybody uses but at different angles…
#6 & #20
You mean like the old men in this site?
http://sfpix.net/
I for one would like to see the comming days of “Logan’s run” where anybody who reaches the ripe old age of 30 is killed.
Sure, our elders have more life experience, and many valid views and opinions – but who want’s those?
Once the world reaches a population of 15 billion, it’s pretty much got to happen. Can’t we just start killing the old folks now, and get a head start?
Common now, we were young once too, and we did the same stupid sh-t that kids do now. Seriously get over it.
If young people were smart, they would have two profiles for their social networking service; A decoy for the parents, and their real one where they can get all of their jollies out…
Furthermore, these young’ns can **** off. They’ll be just like them someday. No need to instill such obnoxious behavior that’ll turn around and bite them in the ass…
Un friggin’ believable! If it weren’t for oldtimers like Mr. D’vorak or even myself to a much smaller degree and untold thousands of techs that I’ve met and worked with over the last 30 years. There would be no internet. Now some zitfaced kid’s gonna get freaked? Not everybody over 30’s computer illiterate ya know!
Can’t believe the editor put this one up…
First it’s parents aren’t monitoring their kids online close enough, now it’s we’re ‘crashing their online party’ because we contact them that way or post in their comments in between their friends comments. Well, for my two younger that’s EXACTLY why I post – so they know my presence is known and that yes I can see the obnoxious $hit you are talking about! I AM MONITORING what’s going on here and if it gets too inappropriate, I will take action. It’s my job as a parent. No you DON’T (as a young kid) have the freedom to act like you are in your 20’s (God forbid if all 20 somethings act like that though). And true, you think internet & technology just popped up without help from us ‘OLD’ people? Or shall we just help create fun, interesting things for you and then walk away from them as if we have no right to technology? BITE ME you insolent air-headed little punks. We the ‘OLD’ people (I’m 40 and I hardly think that’s really OLD) have as much right to it if not MORE than you do. If you don’t want family etc seeing ignorant pics or postings of you DON’T PUT THEM OUT THERE as public!!! Show some responsibility, if you want to be treated as an adult, act like one. For the younger teens, deal with it your parents are SUPPOSED to monitor you online.
Oops! My bad, was I ranting? Sorry but that hit a nerve.
#22: “I for one would like to see the comming days of âLoganâs runâ where anybody who reaches the ripe old age of 30 is killed.”
đ Why don’t you show us how it’s done?
Old news. I saw this same crap on Xanga back at “the turn of the century.” One of the best laughs I’ve ever had was the final post from some girl who was upset that her father had the gall to read her Xanga. It all goes back to the illusion that your parents are totally clueless. By and large, it isn’t true. The truly clueless are usually that way because they are in denial. Of course, those who complain the loudest now will be the ones who are in denial 20 years from now.
I’ve been online longer than any of these kids who are complaining. Longer than most of them have been alive. Back in the ’80’s I used to travel with a pocket screwdriver set so I could dismantle hotel room phones and wire my Radio Shack Model 100 in to go online with Compuserve or local BBS’s.
My older son (now 20) wouldn’t set up a MySpace because he would know I would read it. Now that he’s in college, he knows I read his facebook. His girlfriend co-ordinated her Christmas gifts to him with my wife and mine using facebook. Of course, I probably wouldn’t be on facebook at all if one of my nephew’s 20 something friends hadn’t invited me.
Bottom line is that the kids don’t own the internet. If they don’t like the way us old fogies use it, build your own.