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Mithila Mehta
Welcome to the seamless online era, where age is no bar. While kids have been
glued to their laptops for a while now, the parent brigade is just logging
online. And no, we don’t mean the mundane emailing and surfing routine.
Increasingly, the older generation is gravitating towards social networking
sites
such as Orkut and Facebook—traditionally viewed as a playground for the younger
lot.
Parents Online
Social networking sites are popular and hip, but what happens when your mom
decides to log in too? “Panic, shock and terror is what I felt when I first
saw my mother on Orkut!” giggles Haji Ali resident Shivani Ganjawala. “I had
noticed several of my aunts, uncles and older relatives making online profiles.
So it was not that much of a surprise when my parents too joined them!” agrees
Manish Khurana, a student of Sydenham College.
Just why are parents scrambling towards the virtual world? “My daughter spends
so much time online these days, how else can I monitor who she speaks to
and what she does?” poses Dr Elsie Jamshedji of Cuffe Parade, who has been on
Orkut for over two years. Others claim to have more personal intentions.
“I thought it’s a god idea to rediscover my old school friends and colleagues
from decades ago,” says media executive Vinay Govindani, who has profiles
on Orkut and Myspace.
Invasion of privacy?
Most teens today want to slam the door shut and keep their parents out of their
life. “I was forced to add my parents as friends. So, now, they have access
to my profile and my life. But I felt violated; it is an invasion of my
privacy,” shares Ganjawala. This view is supported by Breach Candy-based Sunali
Mehta, a mother of two grown teens. “I trust my kids. As long as I am an
involved parent in real time, they are free to do as they like in the virtual
world.”
Other kids have less noble intentions for avoiding the parent trap. Admits
Priyum Gupta, a second year fashion designing student, “If your parents are
virtually
stalking your every move, you have to be doubly careful of what others may put
onto your profile. Drunk photographs, hookah and boyfriends are all taboo!”
Parent to friend
Conversely, a small section of the online brigade is welcoming of the parent
advent. “I have nothing to hide from my parents online,” claims Bandra-based
Amrita Mukherjee, who studies at Michigan State University and uses Facebook to
keep in touch with her parents. In fact, a large number of parents claim
to use social networks not as a spying device, but as a communication channel.
“These websites have a user friendly face and draw a quicker response than
emails,” smiles Parel-based Dinesh Mankad, whose daughter studies at Symbiosis,
Pune
The middle ground
Ignoring your parents online is downright rude and against our upbringing.
Adding them as friends may leave you feeling exposed or intruded upon. To accept
or not, that is the question. Thankfully, a middle ground exists where most
teenagers have pitched their tents. This intermediate option is to put your
parents onto a limited profile. “It gives them restricted access to your
profile. You can then control the information they can view,” suggests
Ganjawala.
Adds Savitri Ganjawala, her mother, “This way, a compromise is reached and both
of us are happy!”
Today, as the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds blur, teenagers
must carefully navigate the tightrope between the two. Especially with their
parents online.
(Pic: Mithila Mehta)
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