Like pretty much every child of my generation, I have a Facebook. I joined before it was open to the general public, when one still had to have a college email address to join. I’ve watched it grow from a common college social networking site (in late 2006) to the behemoth phenomenon it is now. Let me tell you, I liked it better back then, despite the fun games that I can now play on it.

I grew up with the Internet. I watched it expand. I was in the know for Internet 2.0. I hear all the news about kids who gave out all their private info on their Myspace or Facebook and get in some kind of trouble because of it and I, like pretty much anyone born in the late 1980s and very early 1990s, thinks that they are idiotic buffoons. We know better. Not to say that we’re perfect–gosh knows, as a generation we’ve done some stupid things. But we also are the ones who have utilized social networking sites to grow social movements–creating groups, event pages and fan pages for our causes and spreading the word to all of our friends to do the same.

My Facebook is PG at most. There are no naked pictures, scandalous statements, or profanity. I have friended my sister, both of my cousins, my mother, my SO’s mother, my uncle, and my grandmother. My politics may differ from theirs, but that’s part of life, and they already knew about that. I know better than to post pictures of any illegal activity whatsoever. My generation is learning that future colleges and employers can and often will look you up on Facebook, so we should keep our pages clean. I do not link to this blog or any other site I am on, mostly because I feel more free to speak my mind on them and I’d rather my family, potential future school, or potential future employer didn’t know about the things in my life that aren’t so PG-rated.