My parents were in town today and they mentioned the article from last week’s paper.  My dad says, “So what was that article about?” and I explained Twitter to him.  His first question was “Well how is that different from instant messaging?”  A decent enough question so I explained it further.  He didn’t seem too interested so I pulled out my laptop, pulled up Twitter and showed him.  He seemed more interested at that point but then asked, “So what about Facebook? Is that the same thing?”  At that point I pulled up Facebook and showed him around the site.  My cousin is one of my friends so I was able to show my parents all the photos that she had posted.  That conversation led  me to then show them LinkedIn.  This must’ve been too much for them to take in because my dad wasn’t understanding why I needed to use three separate sites.  I showed him that one of his best friends is on LinkedIn which helped sell it a little bit.

In the end, I don’t think either of my parents understood what is so great about social networking.  And I’m not sure they need to.  Facebook might be the most applicable to my mom at this point so she can share pictures with others and be connected to her neices and other family members.  I think my dad would find value in LinkedIn so hopefully he’ll create an account and start networking that way.  I did send him links to all three sites so he could set up his own accounts.  I’m guessing, though, that when I head up to their house next weekend, it will be my job to help them get started.  And that’s ok.