When Your Mom or Dad Asks to Be Your MySpace Friend

In today's fast-paced computerized world, online friendships are extremely ephemeral. With a simple click, you can add or delete people from your online sphere of friends.

The difference between an online friend and a parent is that parents are a physical connection to the world.

Most minors live with their parents; their parents provide housing, food, security, and a permanent social circle.

However, most parents do not realize what their children are doing online, and to a large extent, their teenage children are exploring the beginning stages of independence and responsibility.

The core issue of this interaction is how accepting parents are of their children's unique identity. In our western society, children are expected to leave the house at age eighteen to create their own families and social structures. But what are today's teens doing? How much do parents trust their children these days? Likewise, how much do children trust their parents?

Admittedly, there are probably plenty of things that a parent does not want to know about their children. Underage drinking, sex, and drug-use exist in America.

The average myspace account is, at best, an obnoxious scrapbook, with pictures and text of various ridiculous exploits. Myspace provides a sense of hyper-reality, the actual reality of a person's life is probably much tamer than a website would suggest. By putting a website into cyberspace, with exposure to an audience, a person creates media and ultimately culture.

Before the internet, and even before mass communication, people only had two forms of media - written and oral history. One can imagine a town in 1800's America, where the children of a family are subject to rumor and speculation in their social circle.

For the concerned parent, who probably wants to know when their child is engaging in dangerous behavior, it is important to keep a watchful eye on their children and I certainly understand their desire to add their children as myspace and facebook friends.