The Los Angeles Times reports that almost a third of Facebook teens want to unfriend their parents on the social networking site, according to an AOL study released earlier this week.
The AOL study, which was conducted with Nielsen Co., surveyed 1,000 parents and 500 teens and revealed that 16 percent of the teens said they’re leaving Facebook because their parents have joined. Another 14 percent agreed the social networking site is too crowded with adults.
The reason? Imagine being dropped off at the middle school dance by your mother who yells last minute advice out the car window. Teens are embarrassed by nagging or uncool comments posted by Mom or Dad and believe that they no longer have the privacy they once did on Facebook. The problem is so widespread that the YouTube video “My Mom’s on Facebook” got 1.2 million views, according to the article.
However, parents — specifically mothers — have a different point of view. According to the readers’ responses to the Los Angeles Times article, many mothers agree they have better things to do on Facebook than stalk their children.
One mother wrote, “Guess what, this mom is more interested in her own network of friends. I keep an eye on the kids but spend most of my Facebook time interacting with people I know from work, fellow college alumni, and so forth. “
She added, “My teens, like most teens, have a bad case of ‘it’s all about ME’ syndrome, but I’m really not there to humiliate them.”
Still, the Times suggests that this could be the reason why by nearly one in five teens are losing interest in Facebook, according to a survey released by ROIWorld.