avatarAmana

Summary

A mother managing a private Facebook page for her toddler son finds it unsettling that a non-interactive acquaintance is closely observing her posts and offering unsolicited advice, prompting her to restrict access to the page.

Abstract

The author of the content has created a private Facebook page to document her 18-month-old son's daily activities and share them with family and friends. Despite the page's privacy settings, she encounters a woman who has been silently following the posts and comments on the child's behavior without ever engaging with the content by liking or posting. This interaction leads the author to reassess her online sharing practices. In response, she removes non-family members and friends from the page and stops automatic sharing to her Facebook profile to regain a sense of control over her son's digital footprint.

Opinions

  • The author values the privacy and authentic documentation of her son's life, hence the private setting of the Facebook page.
  • She is uncomfortable with the idea of strangers or casual acquaintances scrutinizing her son's activities without active participation or support.
  • The author believes in the natural tenacity of children and is unconcerned about her son's spirited behavior, seeing it as a positive trait that could lead to a strong character in adulthood.
  • She is critical of the woman's contradictory behavior, who despite claiming not to want others in her business, is intrusively interested in the author's son's life.
  • The author is proactive in protecting her family's privacy by conducting a 'purge' of the page's audience and changing her sharing settings.
  • She is reflective about her online sharing habits and decides to scale back on posting about her son, similar to how she has previously limited sharing personal aspects of her own and her husband's life.

The people who pretend not to see me are the people who seem to gawk at my life the most.

I have a Facebook page for my son, the people on there are mostly family and friends. And about 30 people I’ve met within the last two years. I post about my son almost every day. Just his little adventures playing in the dirt and mud, or a trip to the library for group, or field trips. Anyway, I ran into a woman and she started telling me about the places she saw I took my son. And then had a list of suggestions on what I shouldn’t let him do or how to handle him. The point of that page is for me to document him in his entirety. He is 18-months. He’s as tenacious as any toddler … okay maybe a bit more, but who cares. Some of us turn out to be tenacious adults. This woman had never ‘liked’ any of Ender posts, but I’ve noticed she’s watched ever reel and now know she’s seen every post. Our son’s page is private because I know the danger of it being public. It’s there not just for documentation, but also so I don’t have to send everybody pictures and videos to four different families. Everyone has Instagram, great! I’m slowly uploaded his videos onto a private YouTuve and need to put them on a hard drive. I don’t mind her looking at my life, but it did feel a little weird for her to rattle off so many posts but never once liked as posts. I asked her why she doesn’t post anything and she said “I don’t want anybody in my business.” She inspired me to do a purge, so I removed anyone who wasn’t a relative or close friend, and the. disconnected automatic shares to my Facebook (the most recent video had 500+ views, 13 likes) I don’t even think I have 500 friends on there. It just feels weird with that many people watching. I’m going to scale back on showing my son the same way I scaled back on showing myself and my husband.

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