Facebook investigating is not Facebook stalking. . . . but what your parents do on Facebook, is stalking..

I think the term "Facebook stalking" is thrown around too often and used out of its context like the phrase, "Be quite, I'm studying!" So I want to make a distinctive difference between what facebook stalking is, and what facebook investigating is.  Because they might seem similar, but they are completely different.

Lets take for instance Guy 1, Guy 2, and Mother of 3. (Guy 1 and 2 could also be female, but for my example they are dudes).

Lets start with Guy 1, and he is our facebook investigator.  Now guy one is what you would describe as a "kool" guy.  All his friends thinks he's funny and he's had no creepy relationship issues.  So this is what his use of facebook looks like.  Guy 1 meets girl A and girl B at *Social Event*. He then leaves said *Social Event* with two new phone numbers and the girls saying, "Hey, I'll add you on facebook." So right now Guy 1 is feeling pretty good that he is still on top of his game and he proceeds home to get on his computer (or heads to bed depending on what *Social Event* it was).  When he gets on facebook he finds three new friend request from Girl A, Girl B and Girl B's BFF Girl C.  Now the investigating begins and Guy 1 starts with Girl A.  He notices that she is single and then procedes to look at A FEW of her pictures to sorta get an idea of what kind of girl she is.  He notices that she recently went on a mission trip to South America with her church, +1.  Picture of her cooking at Thanksgiving, +1.  And a picture of her sitting in her dads Porsche, +3.  After looking at some of her pictures he sorta has built and idea of what type of girl Girl A is and for this example we score her at 5.  Now Guy 1 moves on to Girl B's profile.  While looking throw Girl B's pictures he notices that she usually parties hard and makes out with a ton of guys and likes to take pictures of it. This gives Girl B -2 points in Guy 1's book.  He also noticed that Girl B sometimes swings from both sides of the plate with Girl C (They might be close friends.. but still).  So Girl B's final score is at -4.  With this investigating Guy 1 now knows which girl he will begin to purse more, and which he will not.  This is totally not stalkerish at all... just investigating.

Now for Guy 2, and he is our fb stalker.  Guy 2 is sorta the quite type who does not partake in many *Social Events*, and usually has less than 250 friends on facebook.  His game is not quite as good as Guy 1's and is usually not practiced as much, or at all.  So Guy 2's attempt at conversation might seem awkward at first, mainly because  robots might not be your favorite thing to talk about.  When Guy 1 finally becomes friends with you he will then start to visit your profile daily.  He will comment on most of your statuses and might say to start a conversation, "it took forever to look through all your pictures last night."  Which he then liked about three pictures which are about two years old.  Also, if you make a change to your favorite actives or favorite movies he might ask you, "Why did you take the notebook off your favorite movies, I love that movie!" or "I saw you added curling to your favorite activities, I was on the team that won the curling competition at my county fair in Montana last year!" These are the signs of a facebook stalker, he's seen all your pictures and knows everything about you on your facebook page.

The Mother of 3 persona is starting to become more frequent as Facebook becomes easier to use for old people, and the older generation of people that first start using fb usually have kids in high school or college.  Commonly used by MO3 for "checking up" on their precise baby off away at college, or letting other parents know their little angel was partying hard the other night and posted pictures of it.  Although some high school and college kids embrace that fact that their parents are on facebook and write on their mommas wall all the time ( :) ), but other kids don't like the fact that they are being spied on.  Now MO3 sometimes acts the same as Guy 2 and they will ask you about your statuses and why you added car surfing to your favorite actives.  Also, they will not only like your two year old pictures, they will comment on them and your four close friends that had already commented on them will get the notification that your momma commented on it as well... So the over obsessive commenter MO3 and questioner is usually the stalker mom.. not the soccer mom...


I hope this clears up the confusion between FB stalking and FB investigating...

-Drew