I started to talk about Facebook in a recent post. I love Facebook- I love it. I often find myself spending hours… yes, I said hours… scouring photos of high school acquaintances, updating statuses, sending my friends bumper stickers, playing on apps, and just general browsing. Bad TV nights are spent profile and picture surfing.

Facebook got hugely popular in my freshman year of college. When friends tried to convince me to get it, I refused for a few months. Then eventually I caved. I started added friends and then slowly adding pictures and commenting on walls. Until it burst into checking my profile every couple hours. It was a really cool way to keep in touch and keep tabs on people that otherwise you’d have no idea what they were doing with their lives- but sometimes I think it might be a good thing to have cut out half of the people on my friend list. 

I guess it all goes back to a new kind of social voyeurism. Whether good or bad, it’s the truth. Half of those people I don’t keep in touch with nor would I really want to keep in touch with them. So why are they my friends? Because I did know them at one point, so why not? I am not forced to talk to them, but if and when I feel like it, I can stop and take a peek at their lives. I can check out some photos, see what they are up to, roll my eyes and feel a little better about my own life. Schadenfreude. Simple, direct, efficient.

However there’s always the occasional awkward interaction. Just recently I got a message from L. L was a high school acquaintance. I probably spoke 5 sentences to her. We weren’t friends, but I didn’t NOT like her either. Just neutral. But she was never particularly nice to me either. Anyway, she messages me to see if I can help her find a job being that she’s new to Columbus. Ok, I appreciate the attempt at networking, but maybe you should try someone you actually spoke to with a shred of respect. Or there’s the time you found out your good friend and ex-boyfriend got engaged by a news-feed message of his change in relationship status. Or there’s the creepy men stalking up the little girls who are taking completely inappropriate pictures of themselve. There’s also the chance it could get you fired, passed up for a job, or in trouble based on your content.

It’s also a new way of putting people down. Facebook stalking. Did she untag that picture? OMG- that bitch de-friended me! Why didn’t he comment back? He’s in a relationship with WHO?! The list is endless. It’s creating a whole new internet saavy way of making people feel badly about themselves. It makes me a little terrified to have children to be quite honest. Megan Meier anyone? That was terrible. It’s not just their peers that are the bullies children have to lookout for- but adults who should know better as well. It’s a scary, anonymous world.

Like I said, I love Facebook. It’s a downright addiction for me. But it’s all about presentation. I have learned to be much more careful about what I put out there. My profile is private and I only use my Facebook and MySpace for friends- not work. I don’t want to open that Pandora’s Box into any potential of badness. Recently my stepfather got a Facebook account. And not that I’m exactly posting stuff he couldn’t see… I would just sooner not even open it up to that. Let’s just say I will not be accepting that particular friend request… or getting back to that girl.

You call it mean. I call it smart.