Monday rolled out in an interesting way.

A total audience of 500 participants, a room of very interesting students who appeared to hear the message being taught and some feedback to make my next presentations in Surrey school district that much more fun and interesting.

A number of surprises – one student informed the audience that her 7 year old sister was on Facebook.

Notable, but not "knock me out of my shoes" surprising.

The next student informed the audience that her 4 year old sibling was on Facebook. I took a breath, I addressed it and confirmed the age and I will now be contributing a number of opinions and tools to a local website for parents to really extend social networking awareness in the home and putting the onus on the older siblings who need to learn how to equate the realities of the Internet with the realities of dangers in everyday life. If 12 and 13 is too young to be on Facebook, how do we as a society feel about 4 year olds?

One student informed the audience that they had over 800 friends on Facebook. I can only think of the amount of connections I need today in my life to feel connected let alone when I was in the 9th grade.

At 14 years of age, I had a hard enough time knowing everyone in my grade let alone my entire school. I challenged a number of participants in the audience today to write the names of all their friends on Facebook on a sheet of loose leaf paper and they scoffed at the idea as it was a daunting task. When asked if there was a difference between friends and acquaintances on Facebook – apparently it is a popularity contest!

That student with 800 plus friends decided to take my advice and change their behaviour as noted from a Facebook status update this evening:

“That's a start. 811 friends down to 681. If you're still on my list, it's because I think you're cool & I don't think you're going to creep, kill or rape me LOL. Feel special ”

I agree, it’s a start – keep at it please.

Jesse Miller www.millerconsultingservices.ca