Thing 20-Facebook

I did not sign up for Facebook, but I viewed all the Expert Village how-to videos about Facebook. I don't know...why does a 60-something grandmother/teacher need to be on Facebook? I set up a Shutterfly share site for my small family-2 kids and my dad. They are really the only ones who want to see my vacation pictures and pictures of the grandchildren. My son has a link to his Flickr site on the share site-so we're all happy. My daughter regularly posts pictures of her kids. Shutterfly notifies all of us when new pictures are downloaded.

I would be very surprised if my son or his wife had a Facebook account. My daughter, who is 32, is an avid Facebooker. She tells me about all the people from elementary school, sports teams etc that she has connected with on Facebook. It is fun to hear about what they are doing. I can see how addicting it is-updating, checking, finding friends etc.

There are lots of opportunities for kids to learn the good, bad, and ugly of online social networking. Sometimes I can't believe how naive/stupid people are about what they say or post online. I don't want my face and activities out there for everyone-parents, students, former students/parents to see. I enjoy my privacy and I'm not quite ready to give it up for the perceived value of social networking!

I did find a teacher network online. It is called teacherrecess (teachersrecess.com) and I seriously thought of joining.Here is a link to the free virtual tour: