The advice offered by our kids could not have been any more sound: Don’t post anything on Facebook you would not want your children to see.

Like it or not, older folks have discovered Facebook, MySpace and Twitter - and they are loving it.

Parental units everywhere are shamelessly and embarrassingly messing with these great new social networking machines by getting hooked themselves. I could almost see my kids rolling their eyes upon seeing my request to become their “friends.” What was probably even more embarrassing to them was when my friend requests started popping up on their friends’ Facebook pages.

Yo, Dad, its Facebook, not Crazebook!

Relax. Young people shouldn’t worry too much about their parents joining Facebook. Hey, I raised three sons. Nothing I see on Facebook can spook me. I actually spend far less time looking at my kids’ pages than I do reading interesting tweets from friends and strangers alike. Other peoples’ lives seem much more interesting at this point, truth be told.

The most endearing thing about Facebook is not that parents are able to keep tabs on their children. It is that Facebook is an incredibly great way for older folks to re-establish personal and professional contacts lost over a lifetime.

Some of my long ago foes have even made contact with me not for any cynical or dastardly reason but to genuinely find out how my life is going these days.

Social networking on the Internet is also a great way to stay connected with other family members. Keeping up with what’s going on with my corn-fed country cousins in Iowa has never been easier.

Imagine the thrill I got when I made contact with my cousin Norma on Facebook. As children, Norma and I were very close but we literally have not seen each other in almost thirty years. Exchanging stories and old photos on Facebook is infinitely much better than mailing photos and Christmas cards to each other from far away places.

I also recently connected with an old bud of mine in the TV news business. Rick and I both got our start at the same little radio station in San Antonio some 35 years ago. Of course, he went on to greater fame and riches as a major market newsman. Seeing his Facebook mug made me realize I probably look as old to him as he does to me.

My introduction to Facebook actually came sometime last year for professional reasons rather than any desire on my part to establish social contacts. While researching information for the El Paso Times Media Buzz blog, it dawned on me that Facebook and MySpace would be great sources of people information.

Trouble was, in order to find out about people on these Web sites, you had to become a member yourself. Reluctantly, I signed up and provided only a minimal amount of personal information cognizant of the possibility that someone else might be looking for incriminating information about me.

During an idle moment recently, I decided to log back onto my Facebook page and was surprised to see dozens of people asking me to be their “friends.” To my greater surprise, among those sending requests were my own kids! Whoa. Have I been missing something here?

My nephew Evan, a bookish tech-smart Texas A&M grad, offered me a remarkable assessment of what we’re dealing with here. “You’ve got to realize that these social networking sites are allowing older folks to bond closer not just with their own kids, but with the entire world around them.”

I’ve come to realize that social networking on the Internet is serving an incredibly good purpose in society. It is actually doing a lot to bring people together.

However, I am guilty of spending way too much time on Facebook. Perhaps the same could be said of a lot of other folks young and old who are similarly hooked. Besides, I think I’ve bonded well enough with my family, cousin Norma excepted.

I think Facebook is indeed a wonderful thing. But to paraphrase an old quote, if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.

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Roy Ortega is a journalist with more than 30 years in the television, print and online news business. He can be reached at rortega54@elp.rr.com.