<p>Silly, I know…but there are some of my college friends who are still gorgeous, still thin and athletic looking, children going to ivy league schools, posting pics of their bonding vacations to Europe with their daughters…I am lucky to get in a shopping trip with mine, and my pics consist of flowers from my vegetable garden. It didn’t bother me in high school or college, but why does it bother me now??!</p>
<p>They are lying. Or Photoshopping. Those “daughters” in Europe are paid models.</p>
<p>That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.</p>
<p>And if those photos can undermine our confidence, can you imagine how hard it is for our young people?</p>
<p>Just remember - NOBODY posts pictures of the ordinary. Taking out the trash, holding your mom’s hand in a doctor’s office, consoling your child when she is heartbroken. Those pictures don’t make the cut. </p>
<p>You are fine Ballet Mom, and I am sure that those who matter love and appreciate you.</p>
<p>Thank you both, on some level I know this! On another, I can’t help thinking my recent college graduate is grown up, and did I miss the photo-ops along the way? Sheesh.</p>
<p>And also, we tend to argue in our family (not all the time!) but sometimes the pictures portray such closeness, and I feel like I want to be like that. I know not all families are really like their best pictures though.<br>
Yes, I believe young people have a hard time of it, since so much of their lives are on display.</p>
<p>Another good reason not to join Facebook…;)</p>
<p>My family used to always say, “No body’s life matches their Christmas letter” </p>
<p>Now I suppose we need to add Facebook to the sentence.</p>
<p>I have a few FB friends who post their lows on FB (think broken hearts, major emotional stuff) – I think I prefer the ones who post the good stuff. I never really quite no how to react to people I don’t know all that well telling everything on FB (to all of their 400 or so “friends!”) It is the younger ones who seem prone to TMI. Maybe its a generational thing.</p>
<p>My grandpa used to say, “An outhouse can look like a palace in photographs 'cause no one can smell it”. My grandpa was a very wise man. :p</p>
<p>BunsenBurner - LOL, that’s great.</p>
<p>BalletMom - I hear you. I am so unphotogenic that I still have that “shadow thing” as my profile picture. I have been reading tales of trips to Europe/South America/Carribbean all summer, I went on a few weekend trips and to the midwest to see family. Can’t even think of a status most days. I never realized how boring I was until FB:)</p>
<p>^You can do better than that! For a while I had a picture of my purple Merrells as my facebook profile picture, then various paintings I’ve done. Currently it’s a nice picture of me and dh.</p>
<p>^
Maybe I can post a picture of my dog. She’s cute!</p>
<p>I know a lot of people who post a picture of their kids. My cousins husband changes his profile pic often to the most random things. He’s a good looking guy I guess (he’s my cousins husband) but he has such a twisted sense of humor. </p>
<p>I don’t think there’s a ‘right’ answer. I take that back. The ones that really make me cringe are the pictures of 40 something beautiful ladies, in dresses clearly intended for a 20 something. I don’t care if you are still a size two (you go girl!!), there are great, attractive styles that are current and are not ‘mom’ dresses. What makes me squirm more is when these are the old classmates of my husband. I’m not an insecure gal, I think it’s just human nature.</p>
<p>I am surprised as I view friends of friends and see HS girls who were not hoochies in HS, yet all their posted photos show a cheap blonde dye job with trashy looking bar outfits. Weird. Like, um, you’re almost 50, do you really want to look like that? Really? That’s how you want every one to think of you? Wow!</p>
<p>I have various pics I use on FB but the one I currently have is a pic I accidentally took with the isight ( on my laptop) when I was studying @ a coffee shop.
It isnt flattering- but it looks like me.( my face is all scrunched up, my glasses are crooked & I am squinting @ the screen)</p>
<p>I’m not trying to get a date, so I don’t need a pic of me in my Spanx & pushup bra.</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>However- I * am* going to book group then out to hear live music tonight- so where are those Spanx?</p>
<p>Well Balletmom…I think flowers and vegetable gardens rule. (any extra tomatoes?)
Every morning H takes a close up picture of a plant in our garden and posts it on his page. I can’t tell you how many people complained when he stopped doing it for a week.</p>
<p>I think there is a 30 pics in 30 days group, one of my IRL & FB friends is doing that.</p>
<p>I have a different “this makes me feel bad” FB issue. Over the past few months, there have been a couple of weddings among FB friends that we weren’t invited to, which is fine. A lot of mutual friends were invited. I see constant wall to wall posts between people who were invited (such as, “can’t wait to see you, do you need a ride up, etc.”) and both my son and I have started to feel that this is the Internet version of people standing around talking about a party they are going to while you, who were not invited, are standing right there. Maybe I’m being oversensitive, but I find it a little off-putting although I do enjoy seeing pictures of events I didn’t get to go to.</p>
<p>oh, that could be awkward, mim…are they in a different geographic area so the list of who was invited would make logical sense?</p>
<p>Not directly related to FB but - I haven’t seen any HS friends since HS and I realized (when thinking about it) that, although I picture them as the same as when I last saw them, i.e. 17/18 years old (frozen in time), they’re actually all in their 50s now! It’s strange to think of them as all being in their 50s. They all will have the effects of aging in one way or the other and I’m sure I’d have a hard time recognizing some of them. I do wonder what they look like now.</p>