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I love facebook.  I also love my family.  I do not, however, love that my family has discovered facebook.  I grew up with facebook.  It began when I was entering college and has grown and matured by my side.  As the facets of my personality multiply and sharpen so do its applications and fan pages.  When I was finally able to post pictures of myself with alcohol without fearing repercussions, facebook came up with a faster way for me to upload these.  When I graduated college and began exploring different fields to see what I liked, facebook added a button so that I could share these likes with one simple click.  I feel like facebook is an old friend, my secret portal out of my house and into the cyber world.  Unfortunately, as the internet and social networking has become increasingly pervasive, my family has begun to discover facebook, and via facebook discover my online mecca.  Now I am not one of those creeps or socially superficial people who are completely different online than I am in real life.  Much the opposite, I am very similar to my true self: blunt, sarcastic, and colorful.  When I am with my family I have learned that perhaps the flamboyance should be toned down, elderly relatives may not want to hear me talk about what a shithead my teacher is. So this crossing of dimensions proves problematic, when facebook tells me that my Poppy and Grammy want to be my friends, how am I supposed to say no? Parents and siblings are not such an issue, I simply tell them they cannot see any of my information.  But how do you explain to an 80 year old woman that you’re “not her friend??” What was once a place for me to relax and enjoy snotty remarks or dirty jokes with my friends has transformed into an environment requiring constant vigilance and photo cropping.  While facebook is a trusty companion, I advise coming up with a good excuse for denying your relatives lest you have your mother asking why her parents keep telling her “Maggie sure looked like she had a GREAT time in Vegas.”

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