How embarrassing is it to see your parents on Facebook?

Inevitably, the original subscribers to Facebook - students - are becoming uneasy. A recent graduate told me that that Facebook made sense at university because there was nothing else to do. But it has become embarrassing since friends of parents joined, sniggering - as if nobody had ever made the joke before - about giving you a poke. The graduate has changed her "poke" invitation to " tickle".

She is delighted that her company threatens to fire idlers caught on Facebook. She has quietly altered her privacy settings to protect her site from the excitable eyes of her widening adult circle of friends. She makes the obvious point that she does not know them. There are many other first-wave Facebookers who now want out. They are frankly mortified by the strange tide of "friends".

One young man complained to me that he every time he logged on, there was another politician trying to befriend him. Two or three politicians on your list is acceptable, but any more makes you look weird. Could it be that the "me media" generation is discovering the pleasure of privacy, just at the moment its parents are trampling across the social networking sites like elderly German naturists?

Copyright 2007 Independent Newspapers UK Limited. All rights owned or operated by The Independent.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.