Cyberspace has a new face: your mom’s!

Lorrie Wilson goes through her daily routine of checking her Facebook. Regularly, she talks with family that would otherwise be difficult to stay in touch with, checks her Farmville account and plays other games.

The only difference between Wilson and other regular, teenaged Facebook users is that Wilson is not a teenager at all – she’s the parent of one.

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      Although Facebook was originally created in 2003 as a hobby project for Harvard students, and then expanded to other colleges and high schools, Facebook is now popular with adults.�

   According to the demographic data from insideFacebook.com as of February 1, 2009, 45 percent of Facebook’s audience is 26 years old or older.

     Lorrie Wilson, a GBHS parent, is one adult who frequently uses Facebook to stay in touch with other adult users. “I think it’s a great tool to stay in touch with people, especially when you don’t see them often face-to-face, like my nieces,” Wilson said.

   Wilson is not the only adult she knows who uses this social networking Web site.

   “I know around 50 adults on Facebook,” Wilson said.

   Susan Taylor, a seventh grade core teacher at Cavitt junior high school, finds that Facebook has put her in touch with people she does not see on a regular basis, such as other teachers and old friends. “I would say it broadens the friendship connections,” Taylor said.

   Facebook appeals to Brandon Dell’Orto, a history teacher at GBHS, because the site helps him stay up to date with others’ lives.

   “It’s like a technological version of those Christmas letters that families send out letting you know what they’ve been up to…with pictures to back them up,” Dell’Orto said.

   Both Taylor and Wilson use Facebook daily. They enjoy the games found on Facebook, such as Farmville and Café World.

   “Different friends would invite you to join different games from Scrabble, to Farmville, Petville (or) Café World. All the different silly games that take up some time and are kind of fun,” Taylor said.

   Taylor gave into Facebook because she was curious about the site.

   “I initially joined Facebook because a lot of the (students) have Myspace, and I got curious about it,” Taylor said. “It seemed like adults could have the same sort of interaction that the (students) were having.”

   In 2008, a handful of Granite Bay High School students created a Facebook group called “Brandon Dell’Orto for President in 2008.”  It was a joke based on a statement attributed to the popular history teacher Brandon Dell’Orto: “If you do not know your past, you are destined to repeat it. Therefore…elect a history teacher to the position of president of the United States of America.”

   Dell’Orto had to join Facebook in order to view the group, which is the reason for the creation of his Facebook account.

   Neither Taylor nor Dell’Orto tries to put students on the spot by sending them friend requests.

     “I don’t seek out (my student’s) friendships. If they request me, usually I take it as a sign that they’re OK with an older guy being their friend,” Dell’Orto said.

   Although Taylor herself has a Facebook page, she doesn’t condone excessive use of the Web site on her students’ part.

   “I try not to encourage them to play on the computers more than they already do,” Taylor said.

   Some parents, including GBHS freshman Kimberly Sinclair’s, do not enjoy using their Facebook accounts.

   “My parents think that Facebook is just another place to check daily, and think it is a hassle that wastes time,” Sinclair said.

   Some students find it out of the ordinary that so many adults have a Facebook.

   “So many adults I know have a Facebook. It’s really weird because I get friend requests from them, and I don’t want to add them, but it would be rude not to,” GBHS freshman Allison Sims said.

   While GBHS junior Kevin Hollingshead doesn’t have his own parents on Facebook, he still finds it odd that adults seem to be dominating the site.

   “I feel like (Facebook) is for teenagers, not adults,” Hollingshead said.

   Students and adolescents expressed their distaste for adults on Facebook by the creation of a group on Facebook called “For the love of god – don’t let parents join Facebook,” which now has 8, 276 members.

   Having parents on Facebook makes some students more conscious of what they post.

   “When you go to post something, you have to remember your parents can see it, and they would get mad if you post certain things,” Sims said.

   However, some students do not mind as much having their parents on the site.

   “I do not think it is weird, because parents want to keep in touch with what their kids are doing, and adults want to be connected with modern society,” Sinclair said.