So on Wednesday we talked a little bit about new media in our discussion of parental monitoring.  And it made me think about something I think about a lot- how parents need to be up-to-date on the technology that their kids are going to be using.  I mean, it's a pretty tall order for parents to be in on everything their kids are using, especially since they go to pretty decent lengths to keep it hidden from their parents.  I mean, I know I definitely did not let my parents see all the stuff I got up to on the internet when I was a teenager, mostly just because it was super super nerdy (coughharrypotterfanfictioncough).  But there's also the fact that I had to teach my mom how to double-click.  I know my mom has gotten a lot better at staying relatively  current in more recent years- she has a twitter account purely so she can follow my younger sisters and see what they're up to, for example.  But I know there are plenty of parents out there who "keep their heads in the sand" when it comes to the emerging technology, especially the numerous social networking platforms out there.  
So it begs the question: where is the line?  How current do parents need to stay without letting it actually take over their lives?  It's a tough thing to figure out seeing as these are all new problems without much research to guide people along.  The minute you have one thing figured out, the next thing comes along and takes over.  I mean, it was not that long ago that myspace ruled the teen world online, and now it's next to irrelevant.  And how many teenagers can you think of that are going to train their parents to use their social networking platforms just so that they can more efficiently track them?  I know I wouldn't have, and I wasn't even getting up to any shenanigans.