It happened in high school and now it’s happening again. Your parents are ruining your social life, but this time, it’s online. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that the social networking site had just registered its 500 millionth user. Zuckerberg’s goal of creating a popular place where people actively connect and share worldwide was finally reached.

While this is good news for him, I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy about it. After all, just who was that 500 millionth user? If the statistics are right, than that brave, new and connected soul was probably someone over the age of 40. If this is the case, then whatever young relative they just friended is probably doing anything but celebrating.

Or at least I wouldn’t. First, let me make something clear: I use Facebook. A lot. Every day a new status is posted, comments are made, events are “maybe’d” and a friend is requested. However, there’s no greater buzzkill to the joys of Facebook than logging on and finding the dreaded friend request from one or both of your parents. Hold off all you want, but eventually you’ll have to cave in and add them, thus leading to the miserable task of untagging yourself from those spring break party pictures and always second guessing the content or language of your status updates. These things are half the fun of the social networking, so parents joining and making it an occasionally uncomfortable and nerve-racking experience is definitely a problem.

Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is not and should not be considered only an elitist thing, with limitation based on age, school, etc. However, the website did originally start as a tool for both enrolled college students and alumni to keep in touch with one another. When its popularity peaked, adults over 30 started to see the benefits of finding and keeping in touch with an old classmate or roommate and began to join rapidly. On the other hand, many parents are just using Facebook as tool to spy on or virtually reprimand their children and that is just not cool.

While this may not be the case for everyone or their parents, for the most part, the issue of privacy and self-expression is that it can be too much information for some. There are certain things many people don’t care to know about their parents and vice-versa, so while it is perfectly OK to be Facebook friends with them, don’t hesitate to use your settings to your advantage and lock specific information or allow them just limited access to your profile.

If something embarrassing does happen, don’t panic. Your parents may be offended, upset, shocked or flat out amused, but they’ll probably give you the benefit of the doubt. Besides, there are more harmful people with access to your Facebook activity such as exes, Internet creepers and future employers.