????直到Facebook向沒有高校或大學電子郵箱的用戶開放之后，它才有了今天的成就。Facebook意識到，限制注冊資格并不是打造社交媒體業務的明智之舉。對于大多數社交媒體來說，規模就代表著一切。

????也正是因為這個原因，商務社交網站LinkedIn (LNKD)已向14歲以上的人士開放其服務，同時在打造供LinkedIn新用戶考察的“大學網頁”。正如《華爾街日報》（the Wall Street Journal ）所說的：

????LinkedIn此舉并不是為了吸引那些長期浸淫在社交媒體、似乎已經厭倦了Facebook的青少年，而是在效仿通用汽車（General Motors）的老做法：培養客戶要從娃娃抓起，一直陪伴他們度過人生的各個階段。

????沒有人會相信美國的青少年（在世界其他地區，青少年的最低年齡劃分界限為13歲）會拋棄Instagram、Twitter、Facebook、或Ask.fm，轉而投向LinkedIn的懷抱。然而，這其中很多人可能會創建個人資料，但隨后，他們會和我們大多數人一樣，只有等到需要的時候才會使用LinkedIn。

????然而，在一些博客們假想的另一種情形中，孩子們在使用LinkedIn后會很快失去自己的童真。在一篇帶有些許諷刺口吻、但卻看似非常嚴肅的帖子中，時尚網站Jezebel的凱莉?布斯曼寫道：

????加入Linkedin的決定無異于是在向世人大聲地宣布，“我已經將自己交給成人世界的各種沉悶；或者在看到自然美景之后，我不會再露出孩童般天真的微笑；魔法已經消失”。

????（請家長們注意：如果你們家的孩子到了14歲看到彩虹或小馬駒時還會露出孩童般天真的笑容，你最好帶他/她去看神經科醫生。）布斯曼聲稱：“成為LinkedIn用戶是認同自己成為‘年輕職業人士’的第一步，也是悲痛的一步；成為LinkedIn用戶意味著人們需要意識到，自己永遠也無法成為一位流行明星，一位大腕演員，至少也無法成為那種衣著鮮亮、居住在豪華公寓、似乎從來不用工作的人。”她總結說，公司將用戶年齡底線由18歲下調至14歲，意味著LinkedIn已經采取措施，“意欲為童年柔弱的夢想設置更多的禁錮。”

????啊，是的。童年的時候，渴望成名的天真夢想似乎是可以實現的。而如今，人們會問，《單身女郎》（The Bachelorette，美國真人約會節目，意思說大人們變得很現實——譯注）什么時間再播出來著？同時，科技媒體TechCrunch的喬什?康斯丁在表達對LindedIn的不滿時更為直接。他提到，LinkedIn對于保護青少年用戶的隱私特別在意，但是，“公司是否考慮過職業規劃給剛進入青春期的孩子所帶來的精神、發育和情感方面的影響呢？”?

????Facebook (FB) wasn't much until it opened itself up to people who didn't have a current email address issued by a college or university. Restricting access isn't a great way to build a social media business, Facebook realized. For most social media, scale is everything.

????That's why LinkedIn (LNKD) has opened its service up to people 14 and above and is creating "University Pages" for the new LinkedIn members to peruse. As the Wall Street Journal put it:

????For LinkedIn, it's less about trying to grab a group of savvy social-media kids allegedly growing bored with Facebook, and more about plying that old General Motors concept: Start out the customers young and stay with them through different stages of their lives.

????Nobody should believe that America's teenagers (the minimum age is 13 in some other parts of the world) are going to flock away from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Ask.fm and toward LinkedIn. But a lot of them might create a profile, and then basically leave LinkedIn alone until they need it for something, like most of us do.

????In another scenario, one created in the minds of some bloggers, kids will surrender their childhoods immediately upon joining. In a post that rings some ironic tones but seems to be entirely serious, Jezebel's Callie Beusman wrote:

????Nothing says "I've resigned myself to all the dreary bits of adulthood; never again will I gurgle with childish joy at some delightful sight in nature; there is no such thing as magic" quite as clearly as the decision to make oneself a LinkedIn.

????(Note to parents: If your 14-year-old is gurgling with childish joy over a rainbow or a horsie, you might want to take him or her to a neurologist.) "Making a LinkedIn," Beusman declared, "is a sad first step towards identifying oneself as a 'young professional;' making a LinkedIn means realizing that you are never going to be a pop star or a very famous actor or, at the very least, someone who wears fashion culottes and lives in a very nice apartment despite never seeming to be employed." LinkedIn, she concludes, has "taken a step to limit the tender glimmer of childhood even more" by lowering the minimum age from 18 to 14.

????Ah, yes. Childhood. When innocent dreams of fame still seem obtainable. Now, what time is The Bachelorette on again?Over at TechCrunch, meanwhile, Josh Constine was much more earnest with his umbrage. He noted that LinkedIn is being particularly careful to protect younger users' privacy, but "what about the mental, developmental and emotional impact of plotting your career just as you hit puberty??