The Parents Who Won’t Embrace Social Media

As a Social Media Consultant, I am challenged every day with people who want a social presence because it is the new, hip thing and don’t really understand the basics of how online activity works.  I applaud you for stepping outside of your box and wanting to try on something new!

My parents are a great example of this.  They are retired, have used computers for their functions at work before they retired, and have no desire to play in social media.  They realized that even though we talk frequently, sending pictures in email just would not do any longer.  I setup a Facebook account for them and buckled down privacy settings as much as possible.  YAY! They can see the pictures and posts and all was well in the world!

I learned quickly there was a language barrier.  It is adorable and real.  Too cute for me not to share.

My parents, social media newbies – would cal me, “I got your email about the event, do I have to go?”  or “I got them email from your friend about your picture” I started to realize these said “emails” where them thinking that every single post, comment or like (from a friends public post) that they genially thought they were sending them an email, or that I was as well. As I am their only friend on Facebook, they saw my activity as genuine emails to them, I realized the dramatic gap they have with social media.

See, it turned from, I am commenting on my friends wall (because they are public people can see it) to, my parents getting an email every time I comment on something.  To them, it is an email. To me, it is just a comment.

(1) Is it just that simple, I post and the email comes that they think is just for them?

(2) Do my friends need to have better privacy settings?

(3) Is it a technology language shift that we are experiencing?

Sure – any and all of the above. In the end, I just had to share how cute they are.