Define Stalking

Facebook. Facebook is pretty ridiculous. My first memory of Facebook was my sophomore year of college. I was home for Christmas break hanging at Danielle's and she logged on to her page. I had never even heard of the site. Danielle explained what it was and my first reaction was "I would never do that." Cut to 3 years later and not only am I all over Facebook, but I am blogging about it as well. I have bosses, older relatives, and even celebrities I don't know as "friends" on Facebook. In a nutshell "everyone is doing it."

I wish there was a option on Facebook so you could look back on what your profile looked like during any given month in the past. Mine has changed probably 50 times. Now they give you the option of viewing all the Profile Pictures you or your friends have used but can you imagine if you could look back at your crushes, or your nemesis profile from 3 years ago? Jackpot. Assuming that 50% of personal Facebook use is for "stalking" I think this would be an amazing feature. I use the term stalking loosely because in actuality the information provided is fairly innocent.

People who are pissed about the News Feed baffle me. I have seen groups started titled "Shut Down the News Feed." To me that is like a celebrity gossip blogger saying on their site "We Need to Stop Talking About Britney!!!" Personally the News Feed is the reason I got back into Facebook and finally quit MySpace. I have no shame in admitting I love keeping up with what my friends and acquaintances are up to in a quick, organized, and easy to read page of info.
Please direct your thoughts to the "About Me" section on Facebook profiles. I was looking at mine about 10 mins ago (natch) and I had stated "I'm institution chic." I thought about why this was my answer, what I came up with were a whole slew of different reasons. Ranging from "I don't want to get too personal" to the simple "I think its funny" If I were to answer that question honestly it would take someone a couple weeks to read it, and even then it would probably still only show a small fraction of my life. What does Facebook really say about us that is all that personal? How many people really answer these questions in a way that when other people read them the answers reveal intensely private information? The type of info you find from real stalking, i.e rummaging through someones trash, peeking through their windows, or wearing their underwear on your head, is not found on Facebook. We reveal our favorite movies, books, etc. We give a tiny tidbit if anything that might actually apply to what we are like in life, but usually not. It is selective answering. Some of us who troll Facebook often enough like to think we can "read between the lines" so to speak and decode whatever minuscule piece of information is provided, but at the end of the day its like squeezing pulp out of a used lemon. Yes I know my crush loves the movie E.T but that says nothing about who he really is as a person. What I do get is pictures, and wall posts and comments, and not just of my crush but of that friend I met abroad, and the girl I took a class with, and my best friend from 7th grade who I barely even know now. So if knowing that they are well, and maybe even that they removed "ice cream" from their list of interests is stalking, then ok, I'm a stalker, and a horrible one at that.