Social Networking with Your Grandchildren
I’m sure you’ve been hearing about Facebook and Google on the news for ages now. You wonder how your grandchildren can find the time to update these sites every couple of minutes, and yet they don’t call you more than once a month. In the past decade, social networking has caught on as the preferred communication method of the younger generation. It’s up to you to keep up so that you can stay close with your grandchildren–even if it’s only online.
Facebook is the most popular social networking site to date, but there are many others such as Myspace and Google+ on which your grandchildren may be active. Anyone can join who has an email address and Internet access. If that’s you, you can head over to the site and sign up. Simply put in your information, add a recent picture, and you’re set.
You may want to access the privacy settings in the upper right-hand corner. In these, you can set what emails you would like the social networking site to send that notify you of upcoming birthdays, new comments, and more. You can also adjust how visible you are online, that is, if just anyone can find you or if you need to find them.
Now that you’re set up, it’s time to track down your grandchildren. Most young people on Facebook are searchable. Click into the search box and type in a grandchild’s first and last name. Before you even click ‘search,’ possible results will pop up with names, a location, and a picture. If your grandchild has a very common name, you may have to look through a few of them. If you can’t find them at all, you may have to call them and ask them to “friend” you instead. Once you two are “friends” on Facebook, you will be able to see their updates and what they’ve been doing lately.
You won’t be able to see those things, however, until they accept your friend request. If they’re like most teenagers or young adults though, don’t worry–that won’t take long! Most people log into social networking sites at least once per day, and many log in more often than that.
Now that your grandchild has accepted your friend request, you can see all that they have been up to, with the exception of posts or pictures that they have blocked from you. If you suspect your grandchild is blocking pictures of his or her latest party, you may be correct. This is a probable scenario thanks to social network privacy settings.
Most likely, you will be able to see their updates, which could be about anything. It might be a simple quotation that they found applicable to their day, song lyrics, a simple statement of what they’re doing (“Off to the gym for a good workout!”), or a link to a site or news article they found interesting. A name highlighted in blue on their post means that they have “tagged” that person to get his or her attention.
For example, if your grandchild posts, “Had a great with Grandmom Becky Lee today” and “Becky Lee” is in bold, you have been tagged. Now that post will show up on your home page because it involved you, and more specifically, your grandchild bragging about his or her time with you. That’s great news!
Social networking sites become easier the more frequently that you visit and click through them to explore new features. Anything that is too confusing can be explained relatively quickly. Just ask your grandchildren, and enjoy being connected with them once more!
Author Bio:
Monica writes for Assisted Living Today a leading source of information on a range of topics related to elderly living and retirement care and facilities, including an in-depth guide to finding the best Nashville, TN Assisted Living facilities.
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