And my aunts. And my elementary-aged cousin. And that random really nice lady that I think is my great step-aunt but I’m not sure. Really. I am. Honestly if I was hiding anything from my mom I would have started a long time ago. I never snuck out. I told my mom I drank in college. She knows. So instead of looking at Facebook as another way for her and the rest of my close-knit family to check up on me, I like to think of it as a way for me to keep them up-to-date in my life, and they do the same for me.

There are so many status updates, information, and photos I would have never gotten to see and experience if there wasn’t Facebook. My aunt never would have emailed us all the video of my cousin dancing at a pep rally for her dance team. Same with the vacation pictures of my cousin and her twin girls when they went to Disneyland for the Disney Marathon. I wouldn’t have known that my mom is feeling under the weather and might stay at home for the day. These are just things we don’t always go out of our way to share in person. And for that reason alone, I’m glad my mom is on Facebook. I like being nosy and knowing how my family is doing, even if it’s just the fact that she is watching ‘Ever After’ for the 50th time.

Maybe other families aren’t like mine, but we all have so much going on it’s next to impossible to keep up via phone or even email. That’s why I’m glad that status updates and even tweets from all my family members are streaming into my feeds on TweetDeck and Facebook. It makes me appreciate why social media was created in the first place– to give people a place to connect with friends, family, and acquaintances that they normally wouldn’t talk to on a regular basis.

Mom and Me

Look! My mom and me even do 5ks together!

So does my mom occasionally leave too many :0) smileys and reminders about going to the dentist on my Facebook wall and status updates? Yes. But I would rather have a mom that can lovingly nag via phone, email, and Facebook versus a mom that is only available via postal mail because she leaves 120 miles away. Isn’t technology great?

Kelsey Jones

Kelsey Jones

Founder/Chief Marketing Consultant at Six Stories
Kelsey Jones helps clients around the world grow their social media, content, and search marketing presence. She enjoys writing and consuming all kinds of content, both in digital and tattered paperback form.
Kelsey Jones
Kelsey Jones