My Top 5...

(photo courtesy of my personal Facebook - and in advance, no you cannot have my full name and no I will not friend you)

While I lament at many of Facebook's current changes (Why does it look like Twitter? Why does it seemingly want me to comment on every single status, photo and update? Why do wall posts and status look the same? Why does this new layout suck so much?), the one thing that the new Facebook ushered in was the beauty that is the LivingSocial application. After seeing just about every single one of my five hundred and some odd "friends" add it, I decided I'd give it a try - and I'm hooked. It's like crystal meth for list makers.

My top 5 TV shows (Gossip Girl, The OC, Sex & The City, Dawson's Creek and Friends - respectively.

My top 5 restaurants (The Clam Box, East Coast Grill, OSushi, PF Changs, Boston Beer Works).

My top 5 beers (Sam Adams Summer Ale, Blue Moon, Corona Light, Harpoon Raspberry UFO, Sam Adams Light).

My top 5 movies (Fever Pitch, Clueless, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Reality Bites, Roman Holiday).

I can't stop. My Facebook wall is filled with my top 5 of everything. I apologize for my Facebook friends that have to look at this on their newsfeed, but I can't stop. I wonder what my top 5 colors are....

-M

How Facebook (and nice people!) Saved My Wallet

I have found that Facebook has many uses -- not just good for stalking ex-boyfriends and former frienemies.

Case in point...

While driving back from Florida this weekend, I slept for hours in the backseat of my boyfriend's little Honda Civic. The only time I woke up was when it was my turn to fill up the gas tank, found myself in some middle-of-nowhere gas station in Virginia. I filled up the tank, half-asleep, and rolled back into the car.

Fast-forward a dozen some hours to New York. Back in the Northeast of the US and I dig through my Juicy Couture Daydreamer tote to fork out my id case for some cash. It's nowhere. I make my boyfriend pull over the car, empty out the backseat, all bags and purse. Nowhere. I lament over the loss of my cash, my credit cards, my license and my favorite Coach ID holder, and call it a day. The only casuality of my vacation was my wallet, and I guess in the grand scheme of things, it could be worse.

I'm getting over my loss, until last night when I log onto Facebook, when a good samaritan tracks me down and sends me a message saying that he, too, was from New England, travelling back from Florida on vacation, and found my wallet at a random Virginia gas station. My wallet, as in fully intact. Cash. Cards. Cute Coach holder. He's sending it back to me today, and I told him to keep some of the cash as a thank you. Just when I've lost hope in humankind - a good person who deserves all the great karma possible crosses my path. Consider this girl's hope restored.

-M

And In Other News, The Sky Is Blue

(image courtesy of: www.examiner.com)

In unsurprising, unshocking, inevitable, bound-to-happen news, Bristol Palin and her "fiancee" (aka teenaged baby's daddy) have officially broken up. I'm sure it was made official via a Facebook relationship status update, as -- well, we all know -- it's the only way we really know when people are together or not anymore.

-M

JOIN US....

(photo courtesy of mydamnchannel.com)

.... ON FACEBOOK!

Join our group We ♥ Pop Culture Paradox and add us as a friend!

-M & P

Overshare!

I recently found this on my favorite local, Boston-based blog, and it got me starting to think. Everyone overshares now. Maybe not to the extent of the crazy guy who posted his own death announcement, but look at our Facebook accounts. Email addresses. Cell phone numbers. Favorite colors, books, relationship statuses. Everyone knows I love to talk and have some hefty opinions on issues that many in my parents' generation consider "private matters," (cue my mother's hushed tone of voice). Abortion, contraception, preference of cell phone providers.

(Sidenote: midnight blue, Confessions of a Shopaholic, in a relationship [happily], pro-choice, I'm on it and T-Mobile -- for the record.)

My mother never shares such information for fear of insulting someone else. Or being judged. She plays nice and acts nice, even if she agrees to disagree. Also for the record, she never actually agrees to disagree, she'll still think you're an idiot, and just not say so. I on the other hand, will say so. This generation of young adults are a bit spunkier than that of the 1950s and 60s.

But it's just not about being opinionated, now is it? It's about sharing it all online, on the internet, for everyone and anyone to see or read. Social networking sites. Blogs. MySpace. Flickr accoutns. It's a bit ironic posting of all things, a blog post (that will be filtered through to my own Facebook account so my friends, friendimies, co-workers, and people I downright don't like [why are we Facebook friends anyway?!] can read it) on this topic. The huge case in point that glares out in my mind is the current trend of online PostSecret sharing. There are entire blogging communities where people simply share their secrets -- and there's intense stuff. Stuff I'd need some serious Zoloft just to read in one sitting. Molestation secrets. Rape secrets. Pregnancy secrets. Cheating secrets. This isn't lofty, 'I like so and so and we slept together,' stuff but some heavy information just floating around in the world of the internet. Do these secret writers know that some bored girl at work in Boston is reading their secrets? And hotlinking their secrets to a blog? Do they even care? And why is it so acceptable for everyone to anonymously post all this (sometimes horrific) stuff that they've done? And moreso, is it okay that anything that's written is totally okay if it's untraceable to the everyday person and has no known person behind it?

Maybe my mom was on the right track of keeping stuff to herself.

-M