Christie got me thinking about Facebook.
I’m friends with a ton of people from high school. Some who I haven’t seen in…oh 19 years. Gulp!
One of those friends is a guy who isn’t married and has no kids.
So this guy, let’s call him Dude, so Dude had a status update a while back bitching about how people show photos of their kids as their main image. I can’t recall his exact phrasing but it was something like he felt people were hiding behind photos of their children because they didn’t want people to see what they looked like.
OK. I want to address this in two parts.
First is the fact that you control your own Facebook account, meaning whatever photo you choose to put up is your choice. It could be a heavily Photoshopped version of yourself or a photo where you think you look best. I would never put up a photo of myself where I thought I looked ugly. I’ve asked friends to take photos down where I thought I looked like I was beat up by the ugly stick. There’s a photo of me taken at the shower my mom threw me and I look so fat and shiny. Yes I was 35 weeks pregnant at the time, but still. FUGLY. I left it up because it’s me (ugly me) with two of my very good friends, Tina and Keri, and it’s buried in there with all my other photos and I would never make it my main shot. (Please don’t go searching for it. 
)
My point being here is that you are going to put up a photo that you think best represents you. At lot of times, it’s you where you think you look your best, right? I’m sure it is for Dude. And that’s fine. I mean, if you see me in the morning, I look nothing like my best Facebook photo.
And second…what the eff does Dude care if people have a photo of their kids as their main image? Maybe they hate the way they look and Dude is just making them feel worse by his proclamation. Or maybe, just maybe, they love their kids that much that they want everyone to see them.
In my case, it’s the latter (though I’ll admit I haven’t taken many good photos in lately). When my son makes a cute face and it’s captured on film, I’ll put it up. When my daughter gives me a smile and it’s documented, I’ll put that up. And I love when people comment on it…except in the case when my mom thought my daughter was my son and then I got nervous and thought I had taken a manly photo of my little girl.
I also love seeing pictures of my friends’ kids. Their smiles, their milestones, them playing…whatever it may be. And for Dude to say the photo of your son or daughter isn’t you couldn’t be further from the truth — my kids are my everything, they are a part of me.
I bet when Dude has kids, he’ll have a photo up of them. Or maybe he’s just the kind of dude who only gives a shit about himself and how good he thinks he still looks.
*Image is my current Facebook photo.
Tags: facebook
I agree! I saw a FB friend complaining about the exact same thing a while back. Of course said friend also had no children. I could care less what someone wants to put up as their FB picture, I’m a lot more annoyed by the incessant invites for Farmville/Birdville/Godzillaville, etc, etc.
Love the pic of course.
Twitter: RanaAurora
says:
I’m with you! I never knew people had a problem with user photos being kids until recently.
Wanna know what I think? If you’re my friend, you know that I am very dedicated to my kids. They’re at the forefront of everything in my life, AND I MADE THEM. They’re a part of me. If you want to see pictures of me, it takes two extra clicks. If you still don’t like it, we’re probably not very good friends anyway so I really couldn’t care less!
I totally agree with Christie on this one. My kids are my pride and joy, and I take any opportunity to show them off! And like she said, it just takes a couple of extra clicks before you can see the hundreds of OTHER photos that are on my profile.