I think I'm just about over Facebook. Too much information is no good. I suddenly have people that I haven't had contact with for 25 years back when I was a pimply-faced-220lb-fat-high-school-dork contacting me via Facebook. It is kind of novel, but being that I am quite introverted and anti-social, people reaching out to me via Facebook induces stress. I don't like stress.
Mainly, though, I find that sometimes a "don't ask, don't tell" or "what stays in Vegas" policy is a good thing. Facebook has informed me that my wonderful, lovely, beautiful, sweet, innocent, smart, and VIRGINAL twenty-two year old niece:
- Can, apparently, really pound some shots when she feels like it …
- Is, apparently, hanging out in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with some buff-frat-guy-looking dude whose Facebook profile pic shows him … Holding a beer bottle … !!! (GASP!!! … Is this young
manhooligan good enough for my Princess of a niece if he drinks … BEER???)
Okay, I don't exactly have my head TOTALLY up my butt … As a loving uncle, when she went off to college four years ago I double-checked to make sure that she did or planned to practice "safer-sex" if/when she "did the deed." She looked at me like she wanted to die of embarrassment … But I HAD to ask … Anyway … All I'm saying is that in my head, I know she is a twenty-two year old woman who will do what twenty-two year old women do all over the world, but sometimes learning what you learn from Facebook makes it harder to live in the fantasy in my head where she is still strapped in the car seat in the back seat of my car singing along to tunes from the Little Mermaid cassette tape!
Of course, I'd NEVER love her any less because of what I learn via Facebook, that's not it at all. More than anything, seeing for myself that my niece is living a full life of her own out there in the REAL WORLD just makes it a bit harder hard not to worry … Because you know … I LOVE THAT KID!!!
And it'll only get worse … The niece who be an eighth grader in a few weeks is campaigning hard to get a Facebook page of her own (though I suspect strongly there already is a secret one around …)!!!
Damn you, Facebook!!! Damn you!!!
Ambookgeek's Blog 
this is why you only check every couple of days and then only look at the first page and make yourself SUPER PRIVATE! TMI TMI!
Take heart. When my niece "friended" me on FB, it gave me access to photos of her going back all the way through college and there were, indeed, quite a few WOOOO! beer photos, etc. Now, however, she is 24, and more grounded. She made it through the woooo-years as most of us do. I'm sure your niece will too. 🙂
Actually, she REALLY is a super responsible kid! Good grades, going to pharmacy school in the fall, working in the U.S. Embassy for the summer in Kuala Lumpur, calls grandma regularly to chat, writes thank you notes and sends them snail mail … 🙂 Any worries beyond the typical are purely because her uncle is a nut! LOL