My Dad Facebooked Me!

by Cory Treffiletti, Dec 17, 2008, 12:46 PM

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Years ago I pretty much gave up trying to explain to my family what I do for a living. I knew they were proud of my accomplishments thus far and that was all that really mattered. I stopped sharing the gritty details of my daily existence because I knew terms such as "impressions," "under-delivery" or "behavioral targeting" as well as sites such as, Stumble Upon and Digg weren't going to ring familiar in their ears.

Of course, times change.

In the last month I've experienced two events that signified the mainstream-ification (if that's a word) of what we do. Finally, what I do makes some sense to my family!

The first event was when my sister and my dad Facebooked me. My Dad is actually pretty savvy when it comes to the Web and has been using P2P for years, but he had never heard of social networking. He'd heard of MySpace, but it held no value for him. It wasn't his demo, so to speak.

It seems the epiphany occurred over Thanksgiving, from what I can only surmise was a discussion led by my cousins, who are all in their mid-20s. I routinely interact with my cousins online, but when my sister and my dad both came online with profiles inside of a matter of days, I knew the tide had turned.

All of a sudden Facebook was elevated to a true communication platform in my family. It has unleashed a plethora of new relatives and the researching of our family tree. It appears we have family all over the world, clumped for the most part in the U.S. and Australia, all of which have routes back to Sicily (that clearly explains my bad temper).

Facebook is now a daily term in my family! Now if I could only explain the news feed and the targeting of the advertising on the site, they'll truly understand what we all do for a living!

The second event was more of a statement than an event. A member of my family said, and I quote, "It's OK if I miss that show. My DVR should catch it and if it doesn't, then my back-up will be online."

The concept that the DVR is fallible, and it's OK, because all these shows are available online, is what threw me for a loop. This was not the tech-savviest person I was speaking to. This was a "mass consumer" by definition, but this person was savvy enough to have online video as a daily part of life.

Both of these are what Malcolm Gladwell calls tipping points, though on a smaller scale: tipping points in my family. These are the experiences that allow my job for the last 15 years to make sense to them, and I love the fact that it's happening!

I know these may seem like trivial occurrences to you, but they are profound to me. The world is in a recession, at least the U.S. is, and advertising is feeling the effects.

Still, with decreased consumer confidence comes a behavioral introspection -- a chance to focus inward and take advantage of downtime by using the tools you have in front of you that are free and fun. The Internet is just such a tool and this economic climate poses opportunities for these rapidly expanding sites and services to reach a mainstream audience who is now at home, on their computer and finding ways to spend their time. Facebook and Hulu (as well as the other video sites) are benefiting -- and you could be, too.

Happy holidays, everyone!

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0 comments on "My Dad Facebooked Me!".

1. Shelley List from DLA Piper
   

   commented on: December 17, 2008 at 1:06 p.m.

   A 40-something with kids on Facebook, I'm one of those who has a Facebook I never look at. The page is there so people can find me, but please oh please don't expect me to dive into that time-sucker. I would like to keep my job, thank you, and occasionally get a few chores done at home.

2. Ruth Mcfarland from Cision North America
   

   commented on: December 17, 2008 at 1:07 p.m.

   Wonderful post today! And reminds me so much of my own family & friends finally "getting it" over the past year.

3. K phillipps Dane from IBM
   

   commented on: December 17, 2008 at 1:19 p.m.

   Great post - I can very much appreciate the brain cramp that comes with that kind of tectonic shift... Last year, when my family was forced to come together for the last days of my grandfather, I was given a not-small amount of crap for my involvement in Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Fast forward a full year - now on Twitter, my Dad let's me know what he's grilling on the stern of his boat, my sister is the director for a tech group with hundreds of twittering members, and my brother (the loudest detractor in 2007) is one of the "Top 200 Lawyers to Watch on Twitter"... My Mom (a classic Luddite, complete with the flashing "12:00" on the VCR) just got an iPhone, and insists on now limiting our written correspondence to the "cute bubbles in SMS".

   A corner is, if not already being turned, just before us. Ubiquitous computing, global village, ambient awareness, anyone?

4. W Austin from ShopNTown.com, Inc.
   

   commented on: December 17, 2008 at 1:35 p.m.

   Cory, thanks for the memories.

   The refreshment of that moment is almost undiscribable. A tipping point, a door you thought would never open that does. The "Finally, they get it!" a relief that you are no longer the only one who gets it.

   A short note of experience was my excitement of the Internet in 1997. How could no one know what it was then? It wasn't til 1999 "Finally, they got it".

   A little refueling to say the least. Thank you.
   W

5. Harold Cabezas from Cabezas Communications
   

   commented on: December 17, 2008 at 1:39 p.m.

   Great post, great comment K Phillips Dane....I have been on social networks strong for almost three years now and the growth I have seen in the last six months from friends who are not active digital has been off the charts. Almost all of that growth has been on Facebook. I also have noticed that Fb has engaged people who might have opened a page on MySpace or Friendster in the past and not been active. It has engaged many people...I am 37 years old so I speak mostly of people 30+ years of age. It is indeed an amazing moment....

6. Susan Lambert from New Moon Media
   

   commented on: December 17, 2008 at 2:07 p.m.

   My Dad literally just Twittered me moments before I read this post. Awesome!

7. Catherine Ventura from @catherinventura
   

   commented on: December 17, 2008 at 2:41 p.m.

   Great post, Cory. I've noticed a stampede in the past couple of months. And don't forget Skype....

8. Kathy Hart from Online/Offline Media Sales Reps
   

   commented on: December 17, 2008 at 4:26 p.m.

   My 77 year old Father passed away last year. But if ever there was as a "Senior" who "got it" - it was him. He had an original Compuserve account - bought us all Atari games back when they first hit the market and was light years ahead of curve in his acclimation to the importance of computers and the online world. Having been at CBS and NBC early on in his accounting career - he understood advertising and the importance it brought along with it - whether it be such early on concepts as impressions, cookies, cache, personally identifiable data, search, from hard drives to software - he taught himself by reading and learning and being the first to market among any age group to embrace a new gadget or technology. Over ten years ago, he recognized the importance of mapping and created his own consulting business, as a retirement project to create maps for tracking directions as well as sales. He felt it was important for Seniors to get over their fears and learn how to use a PC and get online. He taught Continuing Ed classes to Seniors for many years on the virtues and hands on applications of email, surfing the web and basic set up and terminology in which to converse with their friends and family members via the web. Even in the end, he loved his Skype account and talked to all his daughters and grandkids thru Skype. If ever anyone needed to troubleshoot a networking issue - he was always there to not only fix it but to educate us on how to do it ourselves for the next time around. And I feel especially proud to know that his very favorite gift of all time was his PDA that I gave him for his 75th birthday. He was never without and even stored his memoirs on it.

   Thank you for your post. I am once again reminded about what a great Father I had and how lucky I have been in my life.... Happy Holidays to all!!

9. Carolyn Hammock from Euro RSCG
   

   commented on: December 22, 2008 at 5:32 p.m.

   Thanksgiving opened up the same conversation at my house this year. I found myself rambling on about twitter and then migrating over to the computer to show them lolcats. For some odd reason everyone was interested this year. A week later they were all on facebook. and obsessed with it. Interesting to see how things catch on.

10. Mike Azzara from Content Marketing Partners
    

    commented on: December 22, 2008 at 6:39 p.m.

    I'll add to the chorus of "great post" if a little late (get off my back, it's the holidays!). I've had many of those same moments, being in computer publishing since 1982, the Internet since '88, and an early TiVo Series 1, 2 and 3 adopter. Changed my parents lives when I bought them a Series 1 many Xmases ago - and, of course, installed and configured it for them!

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