<p>I'm not sure if this thread really belongs here, but I figured I'd give it a shot... Do any of you use social networking sites to communicate with your kids/parents at college? I was just thinking about it, and something like facebook seems like it might be a nice way to supplement phone calls/letters home, etc. If so, what sites do you use?</p>
<p>Uh, no. My sole concession to "modern communication" is text messaging.</p>
<p>IMs and e-mails and of course cell phones. IMs are best for quick answers, like help I can't get Adobe to do ___.</p>
<p>I find DS's communications are best and most complete via IM.</p>
<p>Sometimes hilarious, too. Just had an IM "conversation" with him that lasted 1.5 hours.</p>
<p>I like the photo feature of facebook where you can see photos taken by kid or by his or her friends at activities. Heaven knows, you don't much in the way of photos otherwise.</p>
<p>I just bought my mom a laptop as an early birthday present and I am trying to teach her how to use aim and I'll send her pictures through email. We also text message each other short little messages from our cell phones here and there</p>
<p>My daughter has done a lot of traveling and I check out the pictures that she posts in facebook as a way of keeping up with the travels without bugging her with a bunch of questions about what tourist attractions she has seen. Plus its fun for me, I feel like I'm traveling along with her. But I wouldn't use facebook to send messages to her -- I certainly don't think that she wants a message from her mom posted on her wall. We use Google Talk, email, & Skype for conversation - & text messaging if there is an urgent need to communicate something.</p>
<p>Facebook and MySpace are too 'public'. </p>
<p>We use cellphones (unlimited in-network), IM, and Webcam video/audio (both of these are free with Windows Live Messenger).</p>
<p>We use cell phones, text messages, IM, and Gmail chat. I find it IM and Gmail chat are much easier, cheaper, and faster to type than texting.</p>
<p>I think it is less personal to post messages on facebook than IM or other types of communication between parents and the kids. This is my personal opinion.</p>
<p>Nah, if I start hanging out on Facebook it'll mortify my daughters. :) </p>
<p>When D1 goes off to college next year, I want to use a webcam and Skype to talk with her. There's so much that it's easy to miss picking up on in email and online when you don't hear tone of voice, hesitations, excitement, etc.</p>
<p>DH has discovered that to communicate with his HS soccer team (he is boy's varsity coach) he needs to start a facebook or myspace so he can post group messages. The kids don't read email anymore so they do not get the info he sends them about practices and games, etc.</p>
<p>Texting is S's preferred method, IM is second I guess. He's not a big fan of facebook, although he has it. Don't think he wants a message from mom popping up on his wall. Yeah, I guess I can send him a private message through it, but he would still prefer text and IM. And text and IM are usually faster.</p>
<p>We use IM and email. The phone is used only rarely. We have videochat available but generally don't use it.</p>
<p>We are pretty backward and just use email for the one at college (writes 3-5 times a week) and mostly face to face for the one at home. </p>
<p>I don't think my cell phone or H's even have text message capacity. If they do, I have never gotten one. I don't carry my cell phone with me unless I know someone might be trying to call me. Happily gave up the Blackberry when I quit work. H carries his cell, but it is rarely turned on so only works if he wants to make a call out.</p>
<p>Our younger son does use AIM but the adults don't have it and I wouldn't know how to get him a message that way. Not sure if the older one uses AIM or if either has/uses Facebook. Presumably they do, but we aren't involved and have never looked at it. I think of that as how they communicate with their friends, not with how they communicate with us. </p>
<p>When H coaches rec basketball in the winter, he uses email group distribution lists to the parents' email address if the child doesn't use his email. S2's football coach and other coaches all still use that method around here. When S1 was in school, we still had phone trees for soccer because so many people didn't use email yet!</p>
<p>I don't think I would object to learning how to text, use AIM, or Facebook but the subject has never come up. Neither of our kids spends a lot of time on the computer and seem to communicate mostly through grunts and 30 second cell phone calls.</p>
<p>Hahahahaha...... No. My parents do not have access to my Facebook. </p>
<p>We do phone and email. I call when I'm bored and walking places by myself. This summer I feel like I talk to my mom constantly because I have several miles to walk each day to/from buses, my apartment, and my office. Email is good if there's something you want to say in the hours when our schedules don't overlap. No texting, IM, Skype, or anything else too technically advanced. :)</p>
<p>Both my husband and I are Facebook friends with our daughter, who's in college. We don't write on her Wall very often, but do sometimes send her Private Messages on Facebook (which no one else sees; it's like sending an email). One reason she friended us is so we could see photos that she's in.</p>
<p>We also have livejournal accounts, and keep in touch that way, too. (And by cell phone too -- although we very rarely text.)</p>
<p>I have lots of friends on both Facebook and Livejournal, so I'm not on either place just because of my daughter, but it's an added bonus that these help us keep in touch.</p>
<p>My d won’t ‘friend’ me :-(.</p>