Are you familiar with catfishing? If you are a parent, then you need to be. And no, this isn’t a lesson on fishing for catfish, nor is it a recap of what I recently saw on “Duck Dynasty.” Catfishing is when someone takes on a false identity online and ropes some unsuspecting person into a relationship. Probably the most familiar story of recent is the linebacker from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Manti Te’o. It’s been all over the news. How he apparently was in a relationship with a young woman online and she died from cancer. Turns out she … Continue reading →
Living in this world of technology, one thing I have noticed is a change in relationships. Face-to-face interactions happen less often. It’s easier to shoot out an email or text. It may feel safer to have a discussion through instant messaging. Instead of talking about our feelings, we are voicing them on Facebook or Twitter. And rather than enjoying quality time together with our friends, we sit a few feet from each other, tapping away on our devices. This can be not only unhealthy but dangerous. I’ve seen one of my daughter’s friends fall for a guy she met online. … Continue reading →
Parenting in today’s world has completely changed due to social media. It has presented new challenges, twists and turns that parents of yesteryear couldn’t have even imagined. Think about the difficulties of getting a teen to communicate, to share what is going on in their life. It can be like trying to pull teeth. But spend some time on their Facebook page and you can learn all sorts of things. That can be good in many ways. You might learn about some struggles your teen is having. But it can also be bad in that you discover some things maybe … Continue reading →
What happens if a relative borrows your car, without your permission, and gets into an accident? What if the relative was intoxicated, and decided to post about the situation on Facebook after arriving home? This could easily lead to a great big mess for an insurance company to sort out. It has been said, many times over, that everyone should be cautious about what they choose to post on social media. This is especially true if you have filed an insurance claim. There is potential that your insurance company could decide to take a look at your Facebook page or … Continue reading →
When you are a single parent your child may spend more time unsupervised than you would like, it’s important to teach them basic safety. One of the big areas that you need to be concerned with is the internet. While there are many good things online, education things, there are other things that can be harmful if your child ventures in unsupervised. Everyone has heard stories of online predators and bullies, so how do we protect our kids? I think the most important thing you can do it talk with your children. Before they go online the first time it … Continue reading →
A few months ago a friend of mine was telling me how she had her teenage daughter go through her list of Facebook friends and delete a number of them. You might assume she had to delete teenagers who were perhaps questionable in their online behavior. No, that wasn’t it. She had to delete a number of adults. You see, we attend a pretty large size church and there is a whole community of us that are Facebook friends with one another. In fact, the majority of my friends are from my church and that means I have both teenagers … Continue reading →
Facebook is filled with dozens of games that you can play. Personally, I enjoy playing several of these games with my relatives who are on Facebook. Now, there is a new genealogy based game on Facebook, called Family Village. I figure it’s only a matter of time before one of my relatives sends me an invitation to start playing that one with them. If I had to guess, I’d say that the most popular game on Facebook is Farmville. Somehow, the idea of growing virtual crops is one that appeals to a lot of people. I started playing this game … Continue reading →
Facebook can be a great way to keep in touch with living family members. But, what if your family isn’t ready to connect with you yet? Time Magazine recently did an article discussing the potential of using facebook to find one’s birth parents, or to find children who had been adopted by another family. If you have ever used facebook, you are already aware of how easy it is to find people you want to connect with. You can use their friend finder tool to locate people you went to high school with, former and current co-workers, and family members … Continue reading →
Most people are aware that facebook can be used to connect with old friends, and long lost family members. Did you know that you can find genealogy resources on facebook? It takes a bit of searching to locate these resources, but they are out there. In order to view most things on facebook, including the pages that have genealogy information, you need to join facebook. After you do that, you can start looking for relatives that have already joined facebook, and connect with them. There is a facebook application called “Family Tree”. You can click a button in this application, … Continue reading →
I come from a very large family. Most of my family lives in the Midwestern United States, and I live in California. The distance can make it difficult to keep in touch with all my relatives, because I cannot easily drop by for lunch, or attend birthday parties and other family events. I never expected to find so many family members on facebook, but there they are! I resisted joining facebook for a long time. I’m not very involved in “social networking”, and most of what I heard about facebook involved description of time waster games, (such as the popular … Continue reading →
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