When I get to my desk every morning, I pull up an array of sites. I go to CareerDiva first, of course; then I log onto my Gmail account, my Hotmail account, my YouBiz blog on MSNBC, and I also log into my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.

As you can imagine, I get a host of emails and messages that are work related and often address pretty serious issues. But this morning I got a message from my 12-year-old nephew Grant. He sent me a greeting card via Facebook.

It looks like the kitten is drunk and the message on the photo says: “Iz no drunk. Now givz me the keys.”

I called him and asked him why he sent it to me. He said, “I don’t know.”

I said, “What do you mean, you don’t know?” He then said, “I was trying to send something else and that one came through. I don’t know what happened.”

I wondered what he intended on sending me. He said, “It was a picture of a cartoon character saying, ‘Respect my authority.’” He added, “do you know South Park? It was Cartman.”

OK, I’m not totally an old fart. “I know Cartman,” I replied, a little miffed.

So why was he sending me this silly message? Grant, a pre-teenager, doesn’t think of social networking sites as a tool to get you ahead in your career.

“I think Facebook is for talking to your friends. It’s pretty fun. You can play games and stuff,” he says.

When I got his drunk cat message this morning, I cringed a bit. My column today on MSNBC.com is about how older workers have a tough time getting another job when they’re laid off, and a big chunk of the advice I offered these employees was to get on social networking sites.

But often job seekers, especially older ones, tell me they just don’t feel comfortable joining these groups. They see them as a haven for young kids who want to talk about hooking up and the latest cyber game.

Grant’s drunk cat lent a bit of credence to their claims.

I admit, there’s a lot of silliness on many of these sites, but don’t throw out the kitten with the spiked bath water.

You can obviously create a network of friends to help you in your job search, but you can also join different networking groups that are specific to your interests. I recently was asked to join a job-searching group on Facebook and it’s jam packed with helpful information.

And at my LinkedIn account I can actually see who’s looking at my profile. This is particularly handy for me when I want to know where I might get the most positive feedback when I pitch a story idea.

Anyway, among the silliness there is substance.

And, honestly, I love that I can hear from my nephew and find out what’s going on in his life. Ten years ago, do you think a 12 year old would have picked up the phone to call his aunt?

Thank you Internet.