Facebook as Facilitator or Foe

Abstract

This chapter examines parents’ use of social media, such as Facebook, with respect to the birth family. Some adoptive parents engaged Facebook as a means of establishing or maintaining reciprocal contact with birth parents and other birth family members; thus, it was used to sustain relationships. Others engaged it “passively” (e.g., as a means of finding out details about the birth family). Still others did not desire or pursue such contact, often citing concerns about boundaries. The chapter also addresses parents’ ideas about their children’s future relationships with their birth family—relationships possibly facilitated by social media and maintained without parental oversight or monitoring.