As every parent of a teenager knows, there’s no shortage of ways to embarrass — nay, completely mortify — your kid: things like waving at them, “smiling weird,” or uttering phrases like “I love you” or “have a good day!” in the wrong company. And of course, the potential to humiliate doesn’t stop with real-life interactions. There are plenty of ways to do it in the virtual world, too, via social media. A simple comment of “LOL” or the posting of a Minions meme, for example, can take your parental presence on a social media platform from acceptable to positively cringe-worthy. No cap, bruh.
We asked our panel of (very opinionated) Hatch teens to share their thoughts on what they do — and don’t — want their parents to do on social media, and they were eager to set forth some ground rules, with varying degrees of acceptance for their parents’ online presence.
Some of the teens’ opinions were very cut-and-dried (“Do not ever engage with me,” says Britney), while others were fine with their parents being on their social media as long as they aren’t, you know, embarrassing. But unsurprisingly, the interactions that teens consider “embarrassing” vary, too. You might think dropping an encouraging word in a comment would be OK, but even supportive comments on their posts are a no-go: “It’s sweet and all, but tell me that to my face … please not on my feed,” says Colin.
From following their friends, to tagging them in photos, to what would make them block their parents altogether, SheKnows’ Hatch teens held nothing back when it came to the rules for their folks on social media. Watch and learn, so that you can avoid being “that parent” … even though, let’s face it, we’re all probably “that parent” anyway.
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