Rejected and Red in the Facebook

Because I have a blog, I may be just a teeny bit more tech-savvy than some of my fellow moms. Emphasis on the word “teeny.” They can kick my ass in the cooking and doing pretty much anything else domestically department. I’m pretty good at navigating the worldwide web and that’s about all.

So during the holidays, my family and I were having a nice family dinner. During the meal, I brought up the subject of Facebook, the social networking website that has become very popular. I have two teens in my house, and, for them, Facebook has eclipsed MySpace for staying in touch with friends. I was asking them about Facebook when one of them said: “Well, you could sign up for Facebook, Mom. Anyone can.” What they probably meant was: “Mom, technically you could sign up for Facebook, but if you go near it, I’ll hate you forever.” What I heard was: “Mom, go on Facebook and sign up!” Can you see where this is going?

So, one lazy morning during vacation, after the paper was read and the e-mails were checked and while everyone else was still sleeping, I decided to venture over to Facebook and see what was involved. Registering for Facebook is deceptively easy. It takes scant seconds. And then the fun begins. Through some Bill Gates-enhanced cyber spy feature, one of the first things that Facebook does is reach into your e-mail address book and find everyone in it that has a Facebook page. I found this interesting. Of course my kids and a couple of their friends popped up and even one of my college roommates who teaches in college. I thought I was being careful not to invade my kids’ privacy. Apparently not. I signed up and gave up as little information as possible. Really, I just sort of wanted to look around the place and see what it was like. Silly me.

About two hours later, I heard my sleepy daughter walk over to the computer and start typing. I was in the kitchen reading a book, having finished with my brief Facebook field trip. Suddenly, she roared: “MOM, NO!” Since I had used a different computer earlier, I really didn’t know what she was yelling about. It soon became apparent.

“I’m rejecting you as a friend!” she said.

“How can you reject me? I didn’t even ask you to be my friend! And you’re the one who said I could go on Facebook.”

“MOM, NO!”

Apparently, all those people in my address book were inadvertently invited to become my friend. Yes, I pathetically implored teenagers that I knew to become my friend. Talk about embarrassing. At least that’s how my kids made me feel. I told my son about it in advance and told him that he could reject me too…and he did.

I had pretty much made the decision to delete my Facebook account when I ran into a couple of the other kids that had received my “invitation.” To my great surprise, they did NOT reject me and thought it was kind of funny. I didn’t exactly feel validated, but I felt less like the creepy stalker mom that my kids had painted me to be.

So today, my Facebook account is still barely alive. I added a photo and a little bit more information. My college roommate “wrote on my wall” and I have a whopping 5 friends. I’m still rejected by my own kids, but then again, isn’t that what motherhood is all about?