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February 05, 2022

New debate over Facebook 'friending'

By James Havers, Sympatico / MSN Finance 

Anyone on Facebook has been faced with teems of 'friend requests' by old friends, colleagues and acquaintances. It's a natural occurrence in the social networking boom often met with enthusiasm over the prospect of reconnecting.
While everyone has been faced with the dull prospect of 'declining' such a request, there have been ethical questions raised over 'friending' certain individuals. Should you reach out to work colleagues? Business partners? Old spouses?


Now, a law professor at The Volokh Conspiracy has opened the debate over 'friending' his students. He doesn't have a problem with it as he tends to keep his Facebook life at arms’ length, omitting the addition of extremely intimate or private material on his page. But this view isn't shared by many of his colleagues.
Meanwhile, parents are reaching out to their kids on Facebook in growing numbers. Bella English at Boston.com, newly signed up to Facebook, was greeted with this response by her appalled 17-year-old: "Mom, you have to get off Facebook. It's creepy. It's not for people your age."
MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and others have torn down walls and brought us all closer together. Perhaps we're finding now we liked those walls right where they were.
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