friending your relatives on social media

Between facebook and twitter, I’m connected to a lot of my blood relatives on social media. In facet, if you count non-blood relatives like my in-laws and the extended families of both of my step-parents (with whom I’m close), I have several dozen relative-friends on social media. Their behaviors fall into three categories, largely correlating to age:

1. Normal Behavior (roughly ages 25-55)

These folks post updates about their thoughts, feelings, and activities. It’s great to connect with them and learn about what’s going on in their lives and I also like that they expose me to things that my self-selected friends don’t generally do, like bible study camps and people who don’t support Obama, for instance. They also exhibit very normal interactions like compliments on photos of my daughters, expressions of sympathy when I post sad or angry or frustrated thoughts, and cheerful notes on birthdays and holidays. These interactions are total wins and I want more of them.

2. Stalkers (over age 55)

When I friend these people, or they follow me on twitter, I often forget that the virtual relationship exists because they never post anything. Silence. Crickets chirping. My mom has two different facebook accounts, one with 5 friends and one with 6. To date, neither one has acknowledged my request to link to her as my mother. Yet, when I talk to my mom on the phone, she’ll ask me about my trip to Ikea or the splash park and I have to remind myself that she knows about these mundane details through her twitter stalking. Who knows how many of these relatives there are, but I’d venture dozens.

3. People who post updates that I literally do not comprehend (under 25 year olds).

Seriously, it’s like these folks are speaking a different language. Here are some examples: