Young Mums on Facebook
For many young people Facebook is the social networking site á la mode. This is most likely to be the case if you are a student; according to some figures, 85% of university students use Facebook. Facebook, for all its misdemeanours and downfalls, really is a wonderful thing. It allows you access to friends and people from your past and present; those who live on the other side of the road, or the other side of the world from you. For all who enter the site, the world really is laid right before them. The site allows people, confined to their room or house, to live vicariously through the lives of others. In a spare moment you can browse Ian’s photos from his holiday in Ibiza, alternatively you can follow the online argument ongoing between a pair of friends, or be the first to find out when Daniel breaks up with Sarah. It is an endless source of amusement and knowledge – a bizarre, contemporary omnipotence. This is especially the case if you find yourself at home with time on your hands during the day or during the evening. For such reasons it is the procrastination tool of choice for most students. Increasingly, it also seems that this is especially the case for young mothers.
Most people will have a handful of Facebook contacts of the same age as them with one or more children. It is perfectly probable that you wouldn’t even have known that Rachel from your primary school was a mother of two, if it weren’t for Facebook. As it is you find on your news-feed regular photo shoots of the little angels for everyone to see. A trip to the beach, shots of them lying on the sofa asleep, maybe even their first day at school. It may bore you, terrify you, or simply make you smile. The student life is not for everyone, and as there may be a hundred photos of you drunk and partying, so their may be photos of them holding and cherishing their children.
What’s interesting is that it seems that this social networking site (and likewise things like Twitter and Bebo) provides young mothers who are stuck at home with a window to the outside world and an outlet for what they are thinking and feeling. Sometimes this takes the form of angry rants; the frustration over the fact that they have to cook and clean and look after a screaming two year-old. Sometimes a simple comment that the children are in bed by 6pm, or that they have a cold, or are refusing to go to bed and so sit snuggled on the sofa watching children’s programmes with their parents. One assumes and is assured that it is with a definite pride these parents upload photos of their children and tell the world all about their lives. In this respect it gives those who are not yet parents, a view of a world they would not otherwise be privy to. If things had turned out differently in your life, perhaps it could have been you posting that your daughter is sending you loopy, or your son is being spooned Calpol. As it is, as you sit checking Facebook one last time before a night out, it feels like it is a million light-years away.
For many young people Facebook is the social networking site á la mode. This is most likely to be the case if you are a student; according to some figures, 85% of university students use Facebook. Facebook, for all its misdemeanours and downfalls, really is a wonderful thing. It allows you access to friends and people from your past and present; those who live on the other side of the road, or the other side of the world from you. For all who enter the site, the world really is laid right before them. The site allows people, confined to their room or house, to live vicariously through the lives of others. In a spare moment you can browse Ian’s photos from his holiday in Ibiza, alternatively you can follow the online argument ongoing between a pair of friends, or be the first to find out when Daniel breaks up with Sarah. It is an endless source of amusement and knowledge – a bizarre, contemporary omnipotence. This is especially the case if you find yourself at home with time on your hands during the day or during the evening. For such reasons it is the procrastination tool of choice for most students. Increasingly, it also seems that this is especially the case for young mothers.
Most people will have a handful of Facebook contacts of the same age as them with one or more children. It is perfectly probable that you wouldn’t even have known that Rachel from your primary school was a mother of two, if it weren’t for Facebook. As it is you find on your news-feed regular photo shoots of the little angels for everyone to see. A trip to the beach, shots of them lying on the sofa asleep, maybe even their first day at school. It may bore you, terrify you, or simply make you smile. The student life is not for everyone, and as there may be a hundred photos of you drunk and partying, so their may be photos of them holding and cherishing their children.
What’s interesting is that it seems that this social networking site (and likewise things like Twitter and Bebo) provides young mothers who are stuck at home with a window to the outside world and an outlet for what they are thinking and feeling. Sometimes this takes the form of angry rants; the frustration over the fact that they have to cook and clean and look after a screaming two year-old. Sometimes a simple comment that the children are in bed by 6pm, or that they have a cold, or are refusing to go to bed and so sit snuggled on the sofa watching children’s programmes with their parents. One assumes and is assured that it is with a definite pride these parents upload photos of their children and tell the world all about their lives. In this respect it gives those who are not yet parents, a view of a world they would not otherwise be privy to. If things had turned out differently in your life, perhaps it could have been you posting that your daughter is sending you loopy, or your son is being spooned Calpol. As it is, as you sit checking Facebook one last time before a night out, it feels like it is a million light-years away.