Facebook Blog

Now Connecting 250 Million People

2009-07-15T09:08:29-07:00

As of today, 250 million people are using Facebook to stay updated on what's happening around them and share with the people in their lives. The rapid pace of our growth is humbling and exciting for us, and it affirms that people everywhere are realizing the power of staying connected to everything they care about on Facebook.

From the beginning, Facebook hasn't been about building a website. Facebook is about all of the people using it and all of the things that are important to you. The 250 million of you on Facebook today are what gives Facebook life and makes the site meaningful to everyone using it, so we thank you.

Each person who joins makes Facebook better by adding a presence to the site that friends and family can connect with and feel closer to. For us, growing to 250 million users isn't just an impressive number; it is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made, and how far we at Facebook have to go to extend the power of connection to the billions of people around the world.

So today as we celebrate our 250 millionth user, we are also continuing to develop Facebook to serve as many people in the world in the most effective way possible. This means reaching out to everyone across the world and making products that serve all of you, wherever you are—whether through Facebook Connect, new mobile products and the other things that we are building. We're grateful to have all of you with us, and we look forward to helping connect the next quarter billion people on Facebook.

Get Updates on Your Favorite Celebs and Organizations Across the Web

2009-07-08T12:57:36-07:00

Facebook Pages make it easy to stay up-to-date with your favorite public figures and organizations. For example, after connecting with Lance Armstrong, I'll receive updates directly from him on my Facebook homepage about his life on the Tour de France, photos of his rides and much more. But when I'm not on Facebook it can be a challenge to keep up, which is why beginning today, we're making it even easier to get direct updates from the organizations and celebrities you care about most.

The same public figures and organizations you're connected with on Facebook can now install a Facebook Fan Box on their own websites, which shows the most recent updates that are also going into your News Feed. If you're not yet connected to their Facebook Page, you can become a fan directly from their Facebook Fan Box and begin receiving updates on Facebook as well.

Now, when I visit the websites of Kings of Leon, Lenny Kravitz or Roger Federer, I not only see their exclusive content but also the personal updates they're posting directly on Facebook including status updates, photos, videos and much more. You'll be able to access Fan Boxes — not just from your favorite celebrities and musicians but also from media outlets and news organizations like ABCNews, NPR and Newsweek, in addition to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and (RED) and your favorite products such as Coca-Cola, Tide, Herbal Essences and Blackberry.

We hope this will make it even easier to stay up-to-date with all the people and things that you are interested in.

If you are a Facebook Page administrator, learn more about how you can add a Fan Box to your website in our developer blog post.

Mark, a product manager, is feeling fan-tastic.

Event Planning Through the Publisher

2009-07-08T10:08:13-07:00

When I want to grab lunch with friends, I usually update my status to see who's around by asking, "Who wants to go out for lunch at 12:30 p.m.?" Another option is to use the Facebook Events application to share extra details like where and when to meet, directions and maybe even a photo. There wasn't an easy way, though, to plan a more spontaneous get-together while also offering more details.

We're now offering a streamlined way to create events directly through the Publisher that combine the best of both of these approaches.

From the Publisher, you can create an event in one simple step. After clicking on the "Events" icon, you can enter information about what the event is and where and when you want to meet.

You can invite friends directly from the Feed story that's created either on your Profile or your News Feed, Just select the "Invite guests" link to share the event with friends.

You might wonder why you wouldn't just invite friends to an event using a status update. Creating an event in the Publisher helps you better organize the event details, and your friends can RSVP immediately when they see it in their News Feeds. This is more structured than a status update and also takes full advantage of the Events application. You can easily find out which of your friends are coming, and of course, they can comment on the event's wall, share photos and use other Events features.

Keep in mind that when you create an event through the Publisher, it will always make the event open for guests. Anyone will be able to join and invite others to join. You can always further edit your event from the application to add more information or to change access to closed or secret.

Bo, a software engineering intern, is creating an event for his next basketball game.

Connecting with... BJ Fogg and Linda Fogg Phillips: The Facebook Parenting Duo

2009-07-06T11:22:40-07:00

At Facebook, we're constantly connecting with interesting people — from experts in their field, academics and researchers to celebrities or visitors to our office. Occasionally, we'll share these conversations on the Facebook blog in our new series titled "Connecting with...." I recently had the opportunity to speak with BJ Fogg and Linda Fogg Phillips, the creators of "Facebook for Parents," an experimental course that was offered at Stanford University.

How did you come up with the idea for the "Facebook for Parents" class that was recently offered at Stanford University?
Linda: I have eight children, seven of whom are old enough to have a Facebook account and do. I saw that among parents there wasn't a lot of comfort and knowledge about Facebook and how it functioned. We tried to remove the fear from parents around Facebook and social networking.

If you could tell parents one thing about Facebook, what would it be?
BJ: If you're not on Facebook yet, you don't have to join. You don't have to drive cars or have a mobile phone either, but it's part of being in the modern world. If you choose not to be on Facebook, you're choosing to be left behind. That's too bad.

What was the biggest take-away for parents who were in the class?
Linda: That Facebook actually can be a great parenting tool that enables parents to be aware of their children and what's going on in their world. It allows further modes of communication within a family, even among people living under the same roof, as well as those that aren't. Facebook also helps parents teach life skills that are outlined on our website.

BJ: The biggest surprise was the shift from anxiety to opportunity. Most parents joined the class because they were concerned about privacy or their kids putting up photos that would stop them from getting into college. By the end of the class, I think they saw the opportunity of this great new world that their kids were involved in. They connected with old friends and saw the charms of Facebook.

We've heard that some kids are uncomfortable "friending" their parents on the site.
Linda: I am friends with each of my children. The reaction was mixed. I found that it depended on the age and maturity level of my child and to some degree, the relationship I have with that particular child. I will admit that one of my daughters got mad at me and blocked me for a period of time, but then we worked out our differences and she added me back as a friend.

Are you friends with your kids' friends, as well?
Linda: Yes, quite a few of them. It really helps bridge the gap as far as communication and for me to be comfortable with their friends, too. I don't request them, they request me. I'm not going to intrude on their lives.

Any other ground rules?
Linda: Depends on the child. That's also what we talked about with the parents in our class. If your child doesn't want to "friend" you, don't worry about it. We found that the No. 1 reason most kids don't want their parents to be their friend on Facebook is that they're afraid their parents will embarrass them — more so than being exposed and letting parents know what they're doing.

BJ: In some cases, that means, "Don't ever post on my wall," and in almost all cases, it means, "Don't post baby photos of me naked in the tub and tag me." The more the parents in our class learned about Facebook, the more their kids seemed to relax.

Linda: I try to respect my kids' space, but at the same time, I try to be a responsible parent who is involved in their lives. In turn, they actually enjoy interacting with me on Facebook.

How else did the parents in your class evolve?
Linda: Parents would go home after class and know more than some of their kids about Facebook. It became a mutual teaching tool where the kids would teach the parents something, and in turn, their parents would say, "Oh, look at what we just learned." Parents would gain respect from their kids, "Mom's not such a dummy on this, maybe she does know something." Eventually, the kids realized their parents weren't on Facebook to spy on them. It was a huge bridge to communication and building relationships within families.

Do you think parents being on the site is influencing how their kids behave?
Linda: It's helped kids realize that there are other eyes on them besides just their friends. They realize it's more of a public venue than so many think it is. It's sort of a self-regulating, self-checking mechanism, which isn't bad. We all need to have that.

BJ: The fact that kids are changing their privacy settings to stop their parents from seeing photos also means that they could do that more generally. It just means they are paying more attention and being more thoughtful about the implications of their status updates photos, notes — whatever they're doing.

When's the next installment of your class?
BJ: We will teach this again, but we know that not everyone can come to Silicon Valley. So we're looking at ways of helping parents get going with Facebook in a way that scales for anyone in the world. Stay tuned to facebookforparents.org. Sign up for our mailing list and our free newsletter.

Kathy, Facebook's resident blogger, is thankful that her parents haven't posted any embarrassing baby photos of her on Facebook.

Tip: Share your family information on Facebook through the Information tab on your profile. You can list your immediate family members or even link to their profiles if they are on Facebook.

Improving Sharing Through Control, Simplicity and Connection

2009-07-01T11:11:00-07:00

UPDATE on Wednesday, July 8: We have begun testing the new privacy settings with a small percentage of users. Each user within the test group will see several Transition Tools that will help them select the level of privacy they are most comfortable with and introduce the new, simpler settings. Additionally, we'll be showing some of you in the test a survey about the transition experience, so please tell us what you think.

The power to share is the cornerstone of Facebook. Privacy and the tools for tailoring what information is shared with whom are at the heart of trust. Over the past five years, Facebook has learned that effective privacy is grounded in three basic principles:

Control. When people can easily control the audience for their information and content, they share more and they're able to better connect with the people who matter in their lives.
Simplicity. When tools are simple, people are more likely to use them and understand them.
Connection. With effective tools, people can successfully balance their desire to control access to information with their desire to connect – to discover and be discovered by those they care about.

That's why in the coming days, we'll be improving privacy on Facebook by launching a series of tests that guide people to new, simpler tools of control and connection.

Control

We're committed to giving people even greater control over the information they share and the audiences with whom they share it. At one extreme, we believe people should have the tools to "broadcast" information across the web and make it available to everyone. For example, back in March, we added an "Everyone" option to give people more control and enable them to share more broadly if they want, something that wasn't possible on Facebook before.

At the other extreme, we want to give people the power to limit who should receive any particular piece of information they want to share. The Publisher Privacy Control, which we launched in a beta last week, allows you to decide who can see the content you publish on a per-post basis. For example, you may want to make some posts available to everyone, while restricting others to your friends and family. You should be able to make that decision every time you share something on Facebook, and soon you'll be able to do this.

Just a few weeks ago, we started the process of phasing out regional networks, since they did not adequately reflect a world where people choose exactly the audience with whom they wish to share. Regional networks made sense for those who wanted to be more open when Facebook was small, but they lost their utility as the site became global.

Now, if you want to share with a smaller, more targeted group, you have a number of options, including specific Friend Lists, all of your friends, your friends and people in your school or work networks, and friends of friends. To share with more people and contribute to the general conversation going on in the world, you can select "Everyone."

Simplicity

When we add new features to Facebook, we usually include a corresponding privacy setting. While this has helped give some people more individualized controls over particular features, the compounding effect of more and more settings has made controlling privacy on Facebook too complicated.

With the test we're announcing today, we'll move towards simplifying these settings and putting them all on the same page. We'll also standardize the options we provide for each setting so the choices are always the same. Lastly, we'll remove overlapping settings to reduce confusion and combine profile fields that are similar, so you only have to make one decision.

Connection

In the next few days, we will begin to explore how to make the transition to the new settings. In the process, we will be asking you to revisit and reaffirm the way you present yourself on Facebook. To do this, we will be offering a Transition Tool that asks you to select your own level of sharing. We think Facebook is most useful when people can find and connect with each other, which is why this tool will enable you to make available those parts of your profile that you feel comfortable sharing in order to facilitate better connection. You will have the choice of being as open or as limited in the sharing of this information as you want.

Two Important Notes

First, we've designed the Transition Tool to respect previous decisions to limit access to information. If you have selected settings that restrict who has access to information, those choices are carried over to the new privacy settings.

Second, none of the improvements we will be testing changes the information Facebook provides to advertisers. Facebook does not share personal information with advertisers except under the direction and control of a user. These new tools do not alter that policy or practice. You can feel confident that Facebook will not share your personal information with advertisers unless and until you want to share that information.

The test we're launching today will include a small fraction of the total number of people on Facebook. This group will receive the new, simpler settings and one of six different versions of the Transition Tool. Over the next few weeks, we'll be collecting direct feedback from the testing group and using it to make improvements to the tool. Our goal is to ensure that people understand the changes to our privacy settings and make choices that reflect their comfort level. After the testing and feedback phase is complete, we expect to offer final versions of the tool and the new settings to everyone on Facebook.

We're excited about having our users enjoy even greater control over how they share their content and information. We're confident that greater control will lead to richer and more useful sharing through Facebook.

Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, is glad to be offering you more control.

Connecting and Sharing the Army Way

2009-06-30T11:22:04-07:00

Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Kevin Arata is the Director of the Online and Social Media Division of the U.S. Army. Since January 2009, he's worked on developing different social media platforms as methods of communication for the Army. We've asked him to share some of the ways that soldiers are using Facebook to connect with each other and their families.

Some people are shocked when they see a Facebook status update or message coming from a deployed soldier. At the U.S. Army, we see it as another positive move that allows our soldiers to feel connected to friends and family at home, even when they're half a world away. Allowing our audience — including our soldiers — to connect and communicate through social networking is still considered risky business by some, and we do face unique challenges. The risks to operations security felt by some, or the fears that our soldiers will post "unbecoming" information, are outweighed by increased communication and sharing.

Soldiers: Past, Present and Future
In this era of persistent conflict and frequent deployments, service members are under constant stress due to the demands of the military lifestyle on both their psychological and physical well being. Facebook has made it easier to stay in touch with loved ones back home. Two months after we launched the official U.S. Army Page on Facebook, it has become a meeting ground for soldiers, their spouses and families to share insights, support and encouragement. In one of many examples, a proud mother of a soldier from Virginia wrote on our Wall about her regular chats on Facebook with her son:

There's no better way to get ready for joining the Army than to hear advice directly from soldiers who've lived it. Through our Page, recruits are able to ask questions of other current and past soldiers and gather many different perspectives much more quickly than through phone conversations or e-mails:

Old friends from previous assignments are also able to stay in touch, or even reconnect, through Facebook. In fact, just a few weeks ago my boss, Colonel Jim Miller, told me he recently linked up with three of his Desert Storm buddies on Facebook after nearly 10 years. He found out they were living within miles of him in Washington, D.C., and was able to get together for a reunion dinner.

Military Brats
"Brats" — the term commonly associated with those who grow up in the military — often face the challenge of being separated from friends as their families move to different military bases. When I was growing up, once you left a group of friends, you were relegated to keeping in touch by writing letters or racking-up long-distance phone bills. Often times, as those friends were moving too, contact was lost and so was the friendship. Now, military children can keep in touch much easier with their friends. My kids, having spent all of their lives moving from place to place, use Facebook to connect with friends from my previous duty assignments.

Army Senior Leaders
Often people assume social networking sites are a place only for young people, but our senior Army leaders understand it's a great place for them to connect with both their older peers and the young troopers who are the backbone of the U.S. Army. An increasing number of Army senior leaders now have Facebook Pages, including General Ray Odierno, where you can stay updated on their daily activities.

The Army is embracing a new way to communicate — one that increasingly involves connecting over a social networking site as much as it means communicating about the Army through an evening news broadcast. Along with our main Army Page, other units and installations are reaching out to establish a dialogue through more than 40 other official Army unit and installation Facebook pages. You can find a lineup of all the official social media platforms for the Army here.

Facebook captures the power of relationships in a way we've only begun to explore. Whether you're a general officer or a soldier deployed to Iraq who gets a glimpse of home through a Wall post or a photo, it's a powerful medium for our community of more than 1.1 million soldiers and their spouses, family members and children.

Lieutenant Colonel Arata hopes you'll join the conversation at the U.S. Army's Facebook Page.

Savoring Summertime with the Arts on Facebook

2009-06-25T18:00:10-07:00

The following is part of our series on different ways you can use Facebook to connect with public figures and organizations around the world. Read the previous blog post in this series here.

Summer Solstice has just passed, and around this time I take my annual stock of summertime plays, operas and ballets offered in my area and in places I hope to visit in the coming months. I always collect an endless wish list of events that are tailored to relaxing summer afternoons and long, sky-lit evenings.

Yet despite my best efforts to keep track of seasonal offerings, the litany of websites I visit and glossy brochures I gather can be overwhelming. It's not until September that I come across that brochure for a not-to-be-missed production of "Much Ado About Nothing" in the park, only to realize that the final bow had been taken in July and the stage disassembled just before Labor Day.

This year, I'm relying less on picking up pamphlets at box offices, and more on notices direct from fine arts companies that appear in my News Feed on Facebook. Many savvy councils for the arts have Facebook Pages, where I can read reviews, find discounted tickets and get notifications about upcoming events. Here are but a few of my favorites:

Behind the Scenes at the Opera

The Royal Opera House recently posted a note about this summer's BP Big Screens, showing operas in parks and public squares around the United Kingdom — from Trafalgar Square in London to Millennium Square in Bristol.

Across the pond in Iowa, the Des Moines Metro Opera, in preparation for "The Barber of Seville", posted a call for ushers on opening weekend at the end of June. If you're an opera aficionado, you can also watch a behind-the-scenes video on the company's page, showing the assembly of the set evoking Rossini's Italy.

Special Offers to the Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet is using its Facebook Page to notify fans that the company will be on tour in China this summer. Even while the company is out of town, you can still receive updates about ample local opportunities to attend student performances that showcase the company's rising talents.

Check out offers on special ticket prices for fans of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City and be sure to leave feedback on recent performances you've attended.

Meanwhile, the Australian Ballet reminds you that June is Nutcracker Season in Sydney — the perfect excuse to lose yourselves in swirling snow and colorful marzipan.

You can also RSVP for your favorite performances directly from the theater company's Facebook Page to let your friends know that you're planning to attend. So if you're booking tickets for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Richmond, Va., you can share your plans with your friends. They may even be willing to help gather the perfect summertime picnic to enjoy under the stars.

Elizabeth, an associate on Facebook's Communications team, can't wait for the arts to come knocking on her News Feed this summer.

More Ways to Share in the Publisher

2009-06-24T11:13:24-07:00

UPDATE on June 24: We've received some questions in the comments about default privacy settings for this beta. Nothing has changed with your default privacy settings. The beta is only open to people who already chose to set their profile and status privacy to "Everyone." For those people, the default for sharing from the Publisher will be the same. If you have your default privacy set to anything else—such as "Friends and Networks" or "Friends Only"—you are not part of this beta.

Today, we're launching a beta version of an improved Publisher—the main place to add content such as photos, videos, and status updates on your home page and profile. The new Publisher has been streamlined a bit, and its most significant improvement is the new Publisher Privacy Control that gives you the opportunity to answer the question, "Who do you want to tell?" as easily as you answer the question, "What's on your mind?"

You may have some posts you want to share with a wide audience, such as whom you voted for or how great the weather is today. Other times you may have more personal updates like your new phone number or an invitation to join you at your favorite restaurant for dinner that are meant for only close or nearby friends.

If you have access to this beta version, every time you publish content into your stream you are able to control which people can access that specific piece of content. After writing a status, uploading a photo or creating other content from the Publisher, use the lock icon in the lower-right corner of the Publisher to access the drop-down menu. From there, you can then choose to make the post visible to:

Everyone: Anyone, on or off, of Facebook can see it.

Friends and Networks: People you have confirmed as friends and people in any school or work networks that you've joined can see it.

Friends of Friends: Anyone who is friends with a friend of yours can see it.

Friends: Only people you have confirmed as friends can see it.

Custom: Choose any friend or Friend List to include or exclude from seeing that piece of content.

For example, you might be comfortable with anyone enjoying the video you took at a concert, but only want your family to see photos from your family vacation. So you can choose to share the video with "Everyone" while selecting "Custom" for the photo album and choosing your Friend List for your family.

Additionally, when you add a new friend, you'll begin to start seeing posts they have set to "Everyone" before they have confirmed you as a friend.

People who had previously set their status updates and profile privacy settings to be visible to "Everyone" are included in this beta launch, but we hope to expand this to more of you soon.

Ola, an engineer at Facebook, is publishing his thoughts to everyone.

What’s in a Name?

2009-06-22T15:35:13-07:00

Everyone has a name, but some people are known by more than one. I am one of them. I grew up in Taiwan and all of my friends in Taiwan recognize me by my Chinese name, while the friends I've made after I moved abroad know me by my English name.

Both are part of my real identity, but until now I could only show one name in my Facebook account. This made it difficult for all of my friends to connect with me. I've even received messages from old friends asking who I was before they would approve my friend request because they didn't recognize my name, even though the profile photo looked familiar to them.

Last week, we added the ability for you to display such alternate names on Facebook. Previously you could associate another name with your account, so friends who knew you by that name could find you in search results. Now, you can further choose to also display your alternate name so it is visible on your profile, in search results, in friend requests and on other places on the site. It also will appear in parenthesis alongside your primary name.

In addition to names in different languages, you may want to include an alternate name if you have a maiden name, a different married name or are otherwise known by more than one name.

To enter an alternate name, go to your "Account Settings" page here. Check the box for displaying your alternate name if you also want it to be shown on the site.

With this change, we hope that all of you with multiple names, in any language, will be able to connect with even more of your friends.

Sophia, who works on internationalization for Facebook, is excited to connect with more of her friends.

---

不用再問我是誰

每個人至少都有一個名字，但是就是有些人的名字卻不止一個。很不巧，我就是其中的一個。在台灣渡過我的前半生，之後選擇浪跡四海；未來呢？還沒有人知道。因此多數台灣親朋好友、鄰家大叔大嬸、後巷裡的黑狗兄等等，識得的呢是本人的中文名號，周遊各地結識的朋友們，統一以我的英文名字稱呼我。其實，不管中文或英文名，這兩個名字還不都是我。只是到目前為止，在我的 Facebook 個人檔案上，我只能選擇叫 Sophia，或是淑慧，無奈的是，不管選擇哪個，總會有大半的朋友在 Facebook 上找不到或認不出我。一些陳年老友收到我的 Facebook 交友邀請，覺得徐娘半老的相片看起來真眼熟，可是就是想不出哪個朋友名叫 Sophia，還得想辦法客氣地旁敲側擊地找答案。

上週 Facebook 做了項人性化的改動，讓大家可以在 Facebook 上選擇同時顯示廣為人知的別名了。其實，之前大家已經可以在帳號設定下中加入別名，不過這資料只會出現在朋友搜尋結果中，方便朋友搜尋辨認。從現在開始，除了搜尋結果之外，大家可以進一步決定是否將我們的別名也顯示在個人檔案、交友邀請、朋友推薦通知與其他地方等等，減少確認時的困惑。

除了中文、外文名字之外，婚後改名冠夫姓的、想補充娘家姓資料的或有其他別名的，都可以利用這個功能，讓朋友間的相認聯繫更輕鬆。

準備好輸入你的別名資料了嗎？只要到你的「帳號設定」頁面，輸入別名後，記得勾選「請同時顯示在我的個人檔案和搜尋結果」選項就行了。

希望這個功能的改良能夠協助許多像我一樣的朋友，在 Facebook 找回更多失聯已久的朋友。

淑慧，Facebook 在地化經理，期待與更多的昔日好友重逢話當年。

What It Means to "Friend" Your Father

2009-06-21T08:12:54-07:00

In honor of Father's Day, we are republishing a column about fatherhood and friendship that originally appeared on June 2 in the Jackson Sun newspaper of Jackson, Tenn. Gene Fant teaches English at Union University and is the author of "Expectant Moments: Devotions for Expectant Couples," a devotional memoir about the birth of his twins, Ethan and Emily, who are now 11 years old.

A couple of years ago, I started a Facebook account to communicate with my students. Many of them had stopped using e-mail, and this was the only way I could catch them in a timely manner.

After about a year, I started finding some of my own friends, from high school, former jobs and even elementary school.

It was awesome to reconnect, in some cases after 35 years, to see how much their kids look like they did the last time I saw them or to see what they're up to.

It's sort of like having access to everyone's Christmas newsletters, only I get to see them over the course of the year rather than in one simple note.

I think, however, that Facebook might be about to die. My dad "poked" me the other day to see if we could be friends.

So did my aunt, my brother's mother-in-law and a bunch of other folks from the previous generation. This means that it has expanded to two or three generations beyond the basic 16- to 22-year-old set.

Becoming Facebook friends with my dad, however, got me to thinking about being actual friends with my dad.

I am Gene Clinton Fant Jr., named after Dad. I look just like Dad. I have a degree from one of his alma maters. Our voices are eerily similar. We're awfully close, and I call him for insight and advice all the time.

"Friends," however, that's a different matter. We fought like crazy during my teen years.

He held a firm hand of discipline. He made sure that I did not only what I was told to do but also what I ought to do without being told.

He insisted that we spend time together as a family, sometimes in ways that excluded my friends or that contradicted my personal plans.

I know that he was ready to pack it all in on a few occasions and let me figure out what the real world was all about, but he constantly held me to high standards.

He admonished me and he prayed for me, sometimes out loud and lots of times in quiet when I didn't even realize that he was doing it. There's no way I would have called him my "friend" when I was about 15.

It's amazing how much coolness he developed when I was about 22. I learned that my successes on the job and in school were related to his discipline.

I found that my high standards for myself were invaluable. When I became a father myself, Dad suddenly gained extra-cool status, as I found myself echoing the words he had uttered to me.

His standards had become my standards, his wisdom my wisdom. Somehow along the way, we had become friends, not because he had bought me things or given in to my whims in an effort to be my pal, but because he had earned it through demonstrating his resolute love for me.

I always cringe when I hear a parent brag that he or she is "best friends" with a 13-year-old child. More times than not, this means that the parent has bought such friendship at a cost of all authority over the child's life.

If you don't think so, then watch what happens when a teenager's friends try to say something even remotely harsh or corrective to him or her. They are friends no more.

There are seasons to life, and the role of parent is the one that ought to take precedence over our child's most formative years. There will be a season of friendship that is earned, not purchased, down the road.

Of all the friends that I have on Facebook, there are many whom I love. There are a few whom I respect. There are none that I both love and respect quite like my dear friend, Gene C. Fant Sr.

Gene is proud to be "Jr." today, just as he is honored to be a "dad."