A Wellesley High School freshman has contracted with her dad to ditch her Facebook page for $200 as a way of opting out of the 24/7 comparisons of experiences and clothes that the social network fuels.
Paul Baier says his 14-year-old daughter Rachel proposed the 5-month contract, under which he will pay her $50 in April and $150 in June in exchange for her abandoning her Facebook page. He’ll have access to the password so that he can deactivate the account and prevent her from re-opening it. It sounds like she might not want to anyway, having found Facebook talk boring, according to her dad.
While dad in this case is more than happy to have his daughter jilt Facebook (“Hopefully this will start a trend,” he says), it’s not like he’s anti-social media. In fact, he makes note of the contract on his own blog, which is otherwise about energy technology and sustainability.
What’s more, Mr. Baier made effective use of Facebook in spearheading a group of parents frustrated with a host of Wellesley Public School lapses in late 2011/early 2012. He has a personal Facebook account but restricts it to family photo sharing.
The only sad thing here is that the younger Baier will miss out on The Swellesley Report page, but at least she can still visit our main website. And assuming she can hold out, she’ll have those 200 smackers to use on “stuff” (though at one person chattering about this post on Twitter wrote: “This is Wellesley. Tell that clown to add another zero to that.”).
P.S.: Coincidentally, the Pew Research Center came out with a report Wednesday showing that it’s quite common among adults in the U.S. to take a “Facebook vacation” due to busy schedules and tiring of the gossip/drama.
