Facebook Stalkers

A couple of months ago I got a Facebook notification that someone had "liked" a picture I had posted.

A year and a half earlier.

Why does it feel weird when that happens? I mean, I put it out there publicly. I did it on purpose for people to look at.

But it still feels weird.

There is a term for this person: the Facebook Stalker. Stalking is generally a negative term, but Facebook Stalking has become an accepted practice. You can be on Facebook and view the profiles of all of you friends...and even others...without them even knowing it. While there are some privacy settings for this, they are mostly unused, because we don't put content on Facebook just so we can block it. We WANT people to see it.

Pictures, comments, links, status updates. We put them out there to be read, seen, replied to, and commented on.

But when you realize someone has been plumbing the depths of your Facebook timeline and photo albums...

Confession: I've done it, too.

It has become a part of the Facebook culture, and culture as a whole. Want to get to know someone? Look at their pictures, look at their "about" page, look at their mutual friends, look at their recent posts.

Employers about to hire a new position often go to Facebook to see what kind of person they are about to hire. You can fake an interview, but Facebook will often expose the real "you."

This is uncomfortable for some. It used to be for me, too. But I've become really comfortable with who I am as a human being. I hope that people see me and who I am and what I do and what I say. Because even though I have a lot of slip ups, I'm doing my best to live a life where the love of Christ shines through in every thing I do.

What do you think? Is Facebook stalking ok? Do you do it?