Social Spying

How to be a private detective and voyeur from the comfort of your own home. That's "Social Networking" for you. I remember when my oldest stepson showed me his Facebook page 3 or 4 years ago. He was so proud of how many friends he had and the volume of comments on his wall. I thought it was kinda weird, but I could see how a 16 year old would like it. Here I am 4 years later and I'm on there. Is it worth it? 2 of my friends kept telling me to get on. I said I didn't want to have my picture or my info "out there." One of my friends has a friend that just has a picture of her eye. Another had a fake name. I succumbed to the pressure and made a profile with a shortened version of my name and a cartoon picture (it was actually the Penelope picture). At first I ignored it, then I got a little bit more brave, I set all the privacy settings, I posted some pictures, I connected with my best friend from grade school, I became "friends" with the boys. I got funny posts from them. They posted pictures. Pictures that included John. Pao was in the background in some. I saw that the camp was completely redecorated to look like my old home. This was less than a year after I moved back to Tampa. I was not as highly self actualized as I am now. The pictures made me sad. The pictures made me mad. I hid the boys so I wouldn't see anything or be tempted to look. After the whole taking John back to court we are no longer connected on fb. 

I've been "defriended". This is known as one of the highest levels of being dissed in Facebook. One of my old co-workers posted a picture of her boyfriend in bed. He was naked down to the pube line where the sheets fell. It was kinda creepy. I don't have much of a filter--I typed "kinda creepy" as a comment. Thusly, I was defriended. At first I felt bad. I had offended her. Now I laugh out loud. Post a picture with a hint of pube and you set yourself up. As for being a voyeur...you know you do it. You see a friend of a friend that you know but don't really like so you click on their profile and it's open and you see the pictures of their husband, kids, house and latest vacation. After the SOB incident, I did some light Googling to look for his wife. She was easily found on Facebook and much to my delight her wall was wide open. I saw her picture with a baby that looked to be between 1 year to 1.5 years old. I saw the lovely home at Christmas and a young boy holding the baby. I could click and see SOB's profile (he did not post a picture) and his wall was wide open (Not very Special Ops). Kinda creepy. I looked at the wife's face and felt really sorry for her. She was smiling with a really cute baby next to her. Not only was he married but most likely this was his child. It made me sad. it made me mad. I thought about how she probably had no idea of the lies in her house. This is an extreme example of "Social" Networking. Learn from this. Dear Readers, next time you sign in on your Facebook account, go to top of page and select privacy settings and click away...

ps One of my guy friends commented on how long my posts are. He said, "it must take you hours to write" and held his hands up to show how long the posts are. I just wrote this one in my mind while taking a shower. It took me less than 5 minutes to type. This is easy.