Why You Creeping On Me?

I don't like to admit that there's a generation gap. But every once in awhile it slaps me on the face and I have to recognize it. And try to learn from it.

Over the weekend I was driving my 16 year old daughter and her girlfriends to a party. Generally that's how I spend my weekends with the kids -- driving them around. But it's often a learning experience for me because I get to hear about what's going on, usually without them even realizing it :).

So the friends are in the back seat talking about Facebook. And they are talking about how their parents and aunts and uncles are on their Facebook pages, looking around, finding out what's going on in their lives. And then commenting on it. Seems fine to me, it's right out there in public.

Then one friend describes a conversation that she had with her mother about it and says, "Mom, why you creeping on me!?" And says, "Why is Aunt Louise creeping on me!?" "Why is everyone creeping on me!?"

Why You Creeping On Me? Which is code for: "why are you invading my privacy on my social media pages." As if there is anything private about social media.

So I got to thinking. Forget about the generation gap that I just slipped into, the bigger issue here is the social responsibility of social media.

Just because we put it out there in a social media space, doesn't give everyone the automatic right to view it, comment on it, and share it. There is a social responsibility to the consumption of social media.

Hmmm.

I guess we all need to realize that as in anywhere else, we need to respect each other's privacy. We need to be invited in. We can only participate when asked. Particularly as marketers.

As a brand, we don't ever want our consumers saying, "Why You Creeping On Me?"

Hope this finds you well -- Jim.