Chinpokofacebook

I do not watch the show South Park very often, mainly because I just don't watch television that often*. Of the episodes I have seen, many of them sucked - like "The China Problem" where Indiana Jones gets violated by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, or "Hell on Earth 2006" in which, among other stupid things, Steve Irwin gets parodied in hell literally weeks after his death.

However, there have been some very good ones. Some of my personal favorites are:
> Canada on Strike, in which Canada goes on a strike to gain the respect of the world. Its not particularly philosphically inspiring, but it has some very funny and quotable moments.

> Go God Go, part 1 and part 2. Hands down my favorite South Park episodes ever. Richard Dawkins, famed atheist and evolutionary biologist, is brought in to teach the kids about evolution, while Cartman cannot wait three weeks to get his Wii and cryogenically freezes himself [by accident] for a few thousand years. Chaos and philosophical battles [gasp!] ensue.

> Chinpokomon, an episode telling about the fickle nature of society and fad toys, like Pokemon. In the episode, the Japanese are using Chinpokomon to brainwash America's children in a plot to destroy Pearl Harbor. It all seems to be going according to plan until the parents realize that the only way to get their kids to stop liking Chinpokomon is to start liking it themselves; it works and the Japanese plot is foiled.


And that brings me to the point of this post: Facebook is rapidly becoming undesirable due to the fact that more and more parents are joining it and gaining access to their children's Facebook lives. [My Parents Joined Facebook is a funny site to visit if you are ever bored.] Now, I am not saying that older people getting cyber-savvy is a bad thing; in fact, I applaud it and am working on getting my mother more comfortable with texting and emailing me.

However, I constantly see when friends will update their statuses or post a link to a funny article and their parents will berate them or annoy them about it - ON FACEBOOK! It drives me nuts and I'm not even the one getting the parental talkdown. Of course, one should always follow the rule of never posting anything on Facebook your mother or grandmother would disapprove of, but that would vastly limit your content, seeing as they are from a different time and generation.

This brings to mind another point though: one day WE are going to be the parents and our kids will be joining Facebook. That will definitely be an interesting dilemma, but we'll cross that bridge when [if] we get to it.

Now I will still be an avid user of Facebook [as long as it stays free] and I would probably add my mother if she ever got around to learning about the addiction that is Facebook. However, she would definitely be seeing a limited version of my profile and I definitely see an long-term Chinpokomon-like dissatisfaction brewing among us college-aged users with the introduction of more parents to Facebook.