1) Today's students have grown up in a world of rapid communication through technology like smartphones and social media. 2) The preferred means of communication for college students is texting and social media like Facebook, while email is less commonly used. 3) Most parents and students commonly use texting and Facebook to stay in touch, but students prefer more independence and privacy as they transition to college. Parents should respect boundaries and find balanced ways to connect without overbearing monitoring of their activities online or at school.

1. When Mom or Dad Asks to be Your Facebook Friend Tips for How to Best Communicate with your Student in the World of Social Media

2. Shift Happens

3. The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm. They have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence.. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting

4. The Class of 2012 Mindset List IBM has never made typewriters Caller ID has always been available on phones WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling

7. Chico State Graduating Seniors’ Media Use

9. 79% Texting

10. 65% MySpace

11. 15% Skype

12. 5% Twitter

14. 58% Facebook

15. 18% LinkedIn

16. 15% Skype

17. 5% Twitter

19. 11% Once a day

20. 50% Several times per week

21. 20% Once a week

22. 4% Less than once a week

24. Advice from Parents to Parents received 224 comments from current parents “Take the cues from your student. Some like more communication than others.” “Give them space but agree on an appropriate amount of communication time. Let them be in the driver’s seat about that as long as they are honest about it. Learn how to text if you don’t already. They will respond to it. Forget Facebook. They make fun of parents who do it.” “Send them little goodies in the mail now and then.”

25. Advice from Parents to Parents received 224 comments from current parents “As a freshman it’s important to contact students often to make sure everything is going good. I think texting is great along with a weekly phone call to check in with them. I think several visits throughout the year is good as well.” “Stay connected without stalking.” “If you have webcams on your computers, you can use Skype for video calls. It’s free on the internet. You can see them and they can see you, the house, pets. etc...”

26. Advice from Parents to Parents “…discuss how you will communicate with your child and how often before they go to school … Leave them a media of their own that they can use for communication among their friends. …we all need our privacy and don’t necessarily need to have each other know everything.” TEXT--Unlimited TEXTing Plan--Learn to TEXT--TEXTing is least interferring--TEXT often--Text! Text! Text!--TEXTing is fun, easy, and cool.

28. “Our children must allow us to be friends on internet social sites.”

30. http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com

35. Determine boundaries for both of you

37. Avoid family humiliation

38. Don’t “friend” your student’s “friends”