#ivebeenschooled #shouldibeoffended #momtweets #tellmehowyoureallyfeel

This is my oldest boy, Jace... Long before social media was even "a thing"...  Really it kinda seems like a lifetime ago to him.  But to me it, it pretty much seems like last week.  Today's post totally called for the social media sharing of this picture.  A couple weeks ago he started his senior year in high school, and in a couple of months he's going to turn 18.  Time marches on and teenagers form strong opinions.  Today the blog is dedicated to Jace and an essay he wrote last night to be presented in his College English class today.  I have yet to decide if I will need to write a response to the "argumentative essay" he will be sharing with his "peeps" today #timewilltell.  So without further explanation here's how Jace views the world.

Jace Cox

Moms Should Not Be Allowed on Social Media

            It should be against the law for Mothers to follow, Snapchat, or become internet “Friends” with their teenage children. Tweets, hashtags, and selfies are just a few of the offenses that Mothers just can’t seem to get right on social media. I understand that most Mothers aren’t quite into the swing of things with computers and especially the internet, but aren’t we all? So what makes mothers so susceptible to terrible blunders online, and what can be done?

            If any of your moms are anything like mine, you probably understand where I am coming from already. All mothers that stay home all day while their children are off at school or doing various activities, tend to develop some guilty pleasures and obsessions. This can include watching the food network, cooking, eating, cleaning the house so often you’d think you lived in a museum, drinking Diet Coke, joining a book club, gossiping, etc.

My mother doesn’t watch the food network, but she did find a TV show that she is brutally obsessed with. The show is called “Castle”. It is about an author who writes murder mystery and crime books. He is allowed to join the NYPD and go on investigations to help provide some insight into the dark minds of killers and to get some new ideas for his novels. At the same time he is a single dad with a teenage daughter and his crazy theatric mother lives with them. The major story of this show however is a budding romance between him and the leading female investigator at the police department. As you can tell I have never involved myself in watching the new episodes late on Monday nights or reruns on Sunday nights in my basement with my mother.

“Castle” has caused quite the stir in my Mother’s social media life as well as my own. About a year ago my Mother discovered this amazing new craze called Twitter. I will take full blame, because she probably never would have activated a Twitter account if she hadn’t found out that I already had one. Twitter opened her eyes to a whole new universe. She could follow celebrities, events, music, friends, political figures, and most importantly, me. She started tweeting Disney quotes, pictures she found funny, surveys that told her what comic book super hero she is and would try to guess her tender age of 29. These however were not enough. She soon discovered that she could follow every actor in “Castle”, plus every fan base, and every possible account that would post anything having to do with “Castle”. My Twitter feed was soon filled with Richard Castle and his actor counterpart, Nathan Fillion. My Mother’s obsession reached an all-time high when she took my whole family to Comic Con in Salt Lake just to get a glimpse of Nathan Fillion and snap a few unauthorized, blurry pictures of him. My biggest Mother Twitter woe happened over Spring Break while my older sister and I were in Disney World in Florida. “Castle” is made by ABC, which is owned by Disney. So while in MGM Studios at Disney World we saw a giant billboard in the park advertising “Castle”. We took a picture and quickly sent it to our Mother to let her know how much we missed her and her “Castle” obsession. A short time later, to our horror, we saw that our Mother had tweeted the picture of the “Castle” billboard with an interesting caption. The Tweet read, “Photo from my peeps @CoxJace @WaltDisneyWorld #wishing #castle #theyknowme”. We soon informed our Mother that it was not necessary to Tweet the picture, use a hashtag, or refer to her children as “peeps”.

Being friends with your parents on Facebook isn’t the greatest thing ever. As soon as you accept that friend request from your Mother you open the floodgates for whatever status, picture, or comment your Mother decides to post. Your third grade class picture is now public property. Your friend just tagged you in a picture from the crazy party last night, you can guarantee that your Mom is going to see it and is likely to like it and or comment on it. Yes, Facebook is a great way for Moms to keep in touch with old friends and to keep their noses in the neighborhood news and gossip. But, that should be the limitations of adults on social media. No matter how young, hip, and in the loop Mothers feel, they will never be able to keep up with the trends and fads of their teenager’s social media. So let’s make the connection between our Mothers not have to be through the internet. Talk to them, let them know what is going on in your life. They care, that’s why they try to stay up to date on the social media. They want to know who our friends are and what they are doing. So let’s get our Moms off of social media and keep them as our “Peeps” in the real world.

 This kid of mine, Jace, really is one amazing guy and he is my "peep" in the real world.  He does share his life with me and I honestly don't need to "stalk" him on social media to feel like I know what he is up to... most of the time.  Hope you enjoyed his "take" on adults and social media as much as I did... One of these days I may share mine too... It's a little different than his...  But for now I'm just going to get this posted on Facebook and Twitter!! #heaskedforit #itsnotillegalyet