the weirdness of FB - a rant

so, recently, there was a FB "movement" for ppl to change their profile pictures to cartoon characters, in support of the fight against child abuse or some such thing.  i changed my picture around that time to kim possible.  i rather thought it was a cute idea more than wanting to "show my support for the fight against child abuse."  obviously i'm against child abuse.  yeesh.  but i'm not one of those FB peeps who follow those FB trends... 


and the reason for that is - i don't believe them!  i don't believe that it's "best sister in the world" week or "best aunt" week or that if you  "change your picture and so & so will donate ten cents for every person who does this"... i just think it's a bunch of hooey.  why can't ppl just say - hey, wouldn't it be cute if everyone changed their picture to their favorite cartoon character?  


well, not long after i'd changed my picture - and about 1/2 my friends had done the same, and we'd all had these pictures up for 3 or 4 days - some DA decides they want to try & ruin the fun.  so they start a post that says the cartoon picture thing was started by pedo's in order to make it more likely kids will accept their friend requests.  


i have one thing to say about this, and then an elaboration.  GIMME A BREAK!!!


first of all, no one is posting a link to the supposed "article" or "show" that said anything about it being a trick of the evil pedo.  


secondly, kids under 13 shouldn't be on fb.  kids who ARE on FB should only be so under parental supervision, and should only have friends on FB who are truly friends/relatives IRL.  


third, there is no "evil pedo conspiracy."  pedos are not really social creatures.  they do use the internet, it's true, to stalk their prey.  however, they're not really all that organized, as a culture.  psychologically, they're generally quite lame.  which does not make them any less dangerous, but ... really?  do you think there's an organization of child molesters who are on FB trying to get ppl to change their profile pictures to make it easier for them to get kids to accept friend requests?  really?  please refer to point 2 - kids on FB shouldn't be accepting requests from ppl they don't KNOW regardless of what their picture is.  (really that should go for everyone, but that's just my opinion.)


i have 212 friends on FB, 22 of whom i haven't actually met in person.  of those 22 i've never met in person, most are A) authors, B) bloggy friends who i KNOW i just haven't shaken hands with, C) ISCA friends i've known for 15 years, or D) restaurants.  i think there are 5 ppl on my friends list whom i haven't met and don't actually talk to that often so i don't really know anything about them other than they are friends of friends.  i don't understand accepting a "friend" request just to bulk up numbers or whatever.  lots of ppl have high numbers of friends for contact reasons or because they don't want to deny anyone or whatever.  that's their choice, and hey, not judging or saying i'm better because i "only" have 212 associates.  lol  i'm just saying that  if your child has a FB account & has more than a couple hundred "friends" you might want to go through the list w/ them & ask how they know each person.  


anywhoooo!  the whole "picture war" thing just kinda set my teeth on edge & i had to write about it before i go to bed.  it's now 10:30 & i'm very, very sleepy!!  *HUGS*  to my bloggy friends!  ttfn!