Facebook or Fakebook?

As most of you have probably figured out, I love Facebook. I’m more connected to friends and relatives now than I’ve ever been and it’s mostly due to FB. I have never been good at keeping photo albums or baby books or scrapbooks, so my Facebook and my blog are basically where I keep memories. I do admit that I’m not an equal opportunity poster. I generally only post when I’m having a good day or something funny happens. I get annoyed when people post all their private drama (and believe me, some people have PLENTY of that) so I try to keep my posts fairly light. I don’t like it when people (especially adults) put something as their status that is some kind of encrypted, veiled message meant to intimidate or threaten someone else. If you have a problem with a particular person, let them know. Don’t post it to the world so we can all try to figure out who you’re talking about.


Because I have teens in the house, I am friends with lots of teenagers. I try not to befriend anybody younger than Karlie, and I really don’t have many younger than Haley, but I still have quite a few teens on my friend list. Have you noticed them playing the “truth is..” game? Well, of course you have. In case you’re living under a rock, here’s how it works. You put “Truth is…” on your status and for every person who “likes” it, you have to post something truthful about them on their wall. (At least that’s how I THINK it works… I’m not a player, just an observer).

I will agree that this game is a confidence booster, but I’m not sure it’s really all that truthful. A typical comment is “You’re so prettyyyyyyy! I love your hair! And I miss you. We need to hang out soon”. (Except 99.999% of the time, they type “your” instead of “you’re”. Eeek. That may well be the subject of a future blog)

If they were being completely honest and writing what is truly going through their heads, they’d comment “You’re not dog ugly, but you’re not as pretty as me. I really hope we don’t have to sit together in the lunchroom again next year because you chew with your mouth open and it grosses me out”.

Okay, so maybe honesty is not always the best way to go! Maybe instead of FACEBOOK, we should call it FAKEBOOK. ?

I personally wouldn’t ever play the “truth is” game. I can’t take the truth. If 100 people commented to me and 99 of them said something really, really nice, I would still have that ONE negative comment in my head. It would eat at me, hurt my feelings, and bring out serious insecurity.

The moral of this story is that sometimes it’s okay to lie…. at least to me. If you have nice things to say, bring it on. If you don’t, shhhhhh.