facebook - Should you 'friend' a person you cover?

I agree with those who say the only minor issue is the semantics concerning the word "friend" and see no problem with it. In fact, from a competitive sense, you probably need to do it in case the competition is, too.

 

That's what ESPN just did with its NFL bloggers. A couple of them already had private pages, but the tekkies set up "official" pages for them.

I have a hometown kid playing minor-league ball and the player/coach of the local sandlot team on mine, and sending a quick "hey, can I give you a call?" message when I see one of them online is a heck of a lot easier than playing voicemail tag.

On the other hand, adding high school kids? Bad call for most anyone over 20, IMO.

 

I say do it if you're comfortable doing it. Me? Eh, not so much.

I just know that I won't be able to turn the switch off in my head if Ms. 16-year old soccer star posts a status update of "I got really drunk last night" and then goes and turns out a shit performance in her next game.

Should I run that she was drunk? Yeah, I think it's relevant. Should I have obtained that information from a personal page? No, I don't think I should have.

 

Well, good point -- but you can always use judgement with regard to information obtained.

Also, I'm not as sure about high school kids in this as I am with adults. But I guess it's all fair game in a sense.

Also, the person can always refuse your friend request.

 

It's tricky ground and best to stay away from unless you legit are their "friend" and aren't going to report anything.

 

I'll google a different way to say it.

 

If you don't like "friend" as a verb, you really won't like "unfriend." It's the new decommit. </supercool>

 

It's defriend, not unfriend

 

You don't need to be someone's friend to message them on Facebook.

 

I've only added that student-athletes I know well enough and that know me. They trust that I'm going to be responsible.

I've broken many stories after reading something on myspace, facebook and twitter. I feel kind of strange about it, but those are great tools to follow what these athletes are thinking and doing without SIDs and coaches hanging around.

 

I don't think underage kids should be Friended. Even if everything is completely, 100-percent above board there's always the chance the kid's parents might not approve.

I've had parents complain about writers calling their kids' cell phones, even though the coach provided that number as a way to contact the kid. If they complain about that, I'm sure they'd not be happy with an adult being a Facebook buddy.