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When her daughter, Courtney, called from the University of Maine at Orono, it wasn’t a call the Anderson family was expecting

“Courtney’s calling and she’s laughing,” Tammy said. “She’s asking if (her brother) Austin is asleep. She said something had hit the Bangor paper, and it said something about Austin tweeting something.”

Word had gotten out that younger daughter Kristen had verbally committed to play basketball at the University of New Hampshire. It became instant news because her brother Austin had tweeted it. Courtney followed suit.

“For it to come out that way was a unique family experience, and it involved Austin, which was great,” Tammy said.

Kristen had finished the exhaustive process to choose a college suitor. She had been careful not to tip her hand on social media and made sure other coaches learned of her decision directly before word got out.

But in an instant, the news was public.

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“It was kind of crazy,” Kristen said. “We were talking about it as a family. Then it was on Twitter. My sister calls me up that night at like, 12:30 and says, ‘There’s an article in the newspaper already. You’re famous.’ She was joking around and Austin was all hyped up.”

It was a way that social media played a memorable part of life in the Anderson family.

But they’ve also faced the unpleasant side. Kristen had a Facebook account created using her name.

“They were friending a lot of people in this area,” Tammy said. “A friend of ours told me that Kristen had friended her at 2:30 a.m.”

Kristen’s reaction to that?

“I don’t even stay up until 2:30 a.m.,” Kristen said.

Her father Mark filed a complaint with Facebook as a parent and Kristen did the same, having to prove that it was not her on the bogus account. Kristen shrugged it off, but the fact that this person was soliciting photos was disturbing.

“The account was taken down the very next day,” Tammy said.

Going Social

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