Facebook has exploded in Norway, within the month of May; I have reconnected with friends from college and elementary school. It’s been a virtual trip down memory lane, peering into the current lives of people I thought I would never meet again. The secretary of the Norwegian Press Association, Per Edgar Kokkvold is on the warpath: Real journalists aren’t on Facebook, because we all know that real journalists get a dog if they want a friend.

It is not the first time Kokkvold is criticizing reporters for using digital tools for networking purposes, a few years back, he worked hard to discredit members of the mailing list Femail Bonding, where young, female members of the elite shared views on current issues. I think that Kokkvold’s critique is a clear sign of a generational divide between the digital generation and the pre-digital generation.

You see, when Kokkvold was the age of the people he is now criticizing for being reporters and being on Facebook, reporters used a non-digital Facebook. This forum is called Tostrup Kjeller’n and is a closed private club in Oslo where you have to have a press card, or a membership bestowed by the owner, to get in.

That was, and still is, where members of Norwegian industry and politics whispered in the ears of reporters. That’s where older male reporters picked up the young female politicians and reporters they would bed. That’s where the elites would be able to network. But with the membership cards, only other elites would have transparency to the network.

OK, so back to Facebook: Kokkvold says it problematic that sources are listed as “friends” in Facebook. I currently have 135 friends, ranging from my sister, and some of my closest friends on one hand, to former students and professors on the other hand. I couldn’t stay in close touch with 135 friends if I wanted to, and those 135 are just a tiny slice of my social circle, the slice that are on Facebook. Most of them are acquaintances, that I will be more or less happy to run into in the supermarket. The word friend in English spans the entire range from friend to aquaintance. Kokkvold seems to misunderstand that range.

But anyone can navigate my network of friends. If you know anything about youth politics in Norway in the mid-90’s, you will find my list quite impressing. It was a small group of maybe less than 200 people, who were involved with the national youth parties and student politics at the University of Oslo, a bunch of those people are in my friends list. All of a sudden, anyone has transparency to this network, because it is mapped out with hyperlinks on Facebook.

Kokkvold, by virtue of age and career, have taken on the mantle of being the protector of the reporter who is above the fray, removed from influence peddling and corruption. One of the ways a reporter maintains the ability to navigate the border between being on the inside and the outside of the halls of power is to maintain transparency. Facebook has provided a transparency to a generation of Norwegian power networks that was previously unheard of. Kokkvold should be lauding this development, not scoffing at it.

Another transparency level that Facebook adds to Norwegian power structures is the Facebook groups. Take my group memberships as an example, I am member of a bunch of groups that is for former members of real life organizations. However, just because I used to be a member of several of these organizations does not imply I still have a loyalty to these organizations. The groups provide transparency to former allegiances, but they do not indicate which ones are current or a transparency of all my allegiances. As a reporter, some indication to such allegiances is better than none.

If Kokkvold continues his crusade against social networking for reporters, he is not only cutting reporters off from an important arena of gathering knowledge and staying in touch with people from all walks of a reporters life. Kokkvold is also eliminating a level of transparency that is sorely needed in a small community like Norway. He might need some continuing education to understand the tools of the digital age, and the first generation in Norway that grew up with those tools.

So here’s the most important lesson Kokkvold need to get about the first digital generation:

Just because you are in my friends list doesn’t mean I have any loyalty to you!