Facebook Parenting
About
Facebook Parenting is a YouTube viral video in which father Tommy Jordan responds to one of his daughter Hanna’s disrespectful Facebook posts by shooting her laptop with a pistol on camera.
Origin
On February 8th, 2012, Tommy Jordan posted a video on his Facebook[1] page in which he scolds his 15-year-old daughter Hanna for posting a curse-ridden status update about her parents on her Facebook page. In the video, Jordan reveals that he was able to bypass her security settings which had blocked him from viewing the update. After reciting her Facebook post, Jordan concludes his rebuttal by shooting Hanna’s laptop with a .45 pistol (seen at 7:10 in the video below). The Facebook post received over 74,000 likes, 30,000 shares and the YouTube video accumulated over 20 million views within five days.
Spread
On February 9th, the video was submitted to the /r/videos[9] subreddit by Redditor captainhowdy27 in a post titled "Parenting. You're doing it right." The video reached the front page and managed to receive over 14,000 up votes within 4 days. The video was subsequently posted on the tech news site Mashable[4] the same day. On February 10th, the story was picked up by Fox News[2] and the web culture blog UpRoxx.[3] On February 11th, Jordan posted a status update on Facebook[11] responding to the videos's viral success and revealed he had been visited by child protective services.
"The police by the way said 'Kudos, Sir' and most of them made their kids watch it. I actually had a 'thank you' from an entire detectives' squad. And another police officer is using it in a positive manner in his presentation for the school system."
On February 13th, the story was reported by the New York Times blog[5], Time[6], CNET[7] and MSNBC.[8]
Parody Videos
Several videos were created shortly after the video began spreading portraying Jordan as a southern "redneck", or using other ethnic stereotypes.
Response Videos
Many response videos were uploaded on YouTube with a variety of opinions regarding Jordan's disciplinary actions. Some felt that he was correct in shooting his daughters laptop, while others criticized the decision saying it went too far.
Search Interest
Search query volume for "Facebook parenting" rose significantly in February of 2012, the same month the original video was uploaded to YouTube.
External References
[1] Facebook – Tommy Jordan's post
[2] Fox News – Video of gun-toting dad blasting away at daughter's laptop goes viral
[3] UPROXXX – Deranged Man Demonstrates How A Parent Shouldn’t React To A Child’s Whiny Facebook Wall Post
[4] Mashable – Dad Shoots Teen's Laptop Over Facebook Post
[5] New York Times – Father Shoots Daughter’s Laptop Over Facebook Post
[6] Time – The Lesson of the Laptop-Shooting Dad
[7] CNET – Police visit Facebook dad who shot daughter's laptop
[8] Viral Video Chart – Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen.
[9] Reddit – Parenting. You're doing it right.
[10] MSNBC – Laptop-shooting dad, after 21 million views, says he'd do it over again
