Facebook Ads for Forty Year Olds

Many of you are familiar with Facebook, as am I. As slick as it is, it's hard to believe that they make so much money on advertising when I regularly see stuff like this (left).

Obviously, Facebook looks at my age to create my personalized ads...or is that just a coincidence? (Note sarcasm--I need that new punctuation mark for sarcasm I've been hearing about!) By the way, who has a Driver's License picture like that, anyway? Could you imagine that whole scenario? Let's try...

BMV* LADY: Ok, just stand here in front of the backdrop and I'll take your picture so you can have your new license.

STUD GUY: Ok. Does my hair look ok?

BMV LADY: Uh....sure...whatever. I have 72 people waiting behind you and I need to take a government approved break where I just sit and do nothing. Let's keep it moving.

STUD GUY: Well, I guess it's ok. Now, tell me, what's my motivation in this shot?

BMV LADY: What? Your motivation? I guess your motivation is that you need a new license or you won't be able to drive. Now, PLEASE look into the camera.

STUD GUY: Perfect. Let me get there. I'm a method actor.....[long pause, people can be heard screaming in the background.] WAIT! This doesn't seem right. It needs something.

BMV: Sir, all I need to do is push the button so you can move on and I can get my break.

STUD GUY: I got it. I'll take my shirt off.

BMV: Sir, that's really not necess....oh, ok.

Since I'm 40, I qualify for $12/month car insurance. I'm sure that has to be real, right? (still need that SarcMark) Plus, I can get a FREE Apple iPad

*That's right, I said "BMV!" Here in Indiana it's the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and not the DMV.

Has Facebook Taken Over My Desire to Blog

I love Facebook because it's just so easy to post something about your day and see what everyone else is up to. Since I've gotten into it I haven't been blogging as much. But I'm not about to let this thing die as I've been working on it for quite some time now. Besides, I wouldn't want to let down both of my regular readers.

Additionally, I find that I can go on with much more detail on my blog about life, earwax, meow meow butterpants, etc.

How about the rest of you...has Facebook had an impact on your blogging?

Facebook Udders In the New Rules for New Year

I've become a bit of a Facebook junkie in recent months. It's a great way to stay in touch with friends and family and to reconnect with old friends. Like anything else, it can also be abused. Furthermore, when something gets really popular (as Facebook has) it takes on a life of it's own. This morning I read the following story from my local newspaper:

"Facebook nudity policy draws nursing moms' ire"

I'm a married man and all of my kids have been breastfed. I believe that it's the ideal way for a baby to be fed. I know that a lot of you who read this blog (some of you that I worship with on Sundays) are big breast-feeding supporters (Hold on, I just typed "big breast" on my blog for the very first time--I'm sure that I'll get some new visitors with words like that posted here. I should also point out that by "big breast-feeding supporters" I'm using the word "big" to describe overwhelming approval for breast-feeding and not the actual size of the...oh, never mind.).

Facebook allows you to post pictures and they do a good job of policing it from nudity. Lately, they've stepped up the policing to include pictures of breastfeeding (hence the above mentioned article). I've seen my wife nurse our babies and it's a beautiful thing. But I have no need to see other mom's nurse their kids and I'm quite certain that many (if not most) of those mothers don't want me to watch them breastfeed their children. That doesn't mean that a mom cannot nurse in public. The mother does nothing wrong when she feeds her baby anywhere. I just have no plans to stare at it and I wouldn't want anyone staring at my wife when she was breastfeeding (well, any man).

There certainly is a time and a place for breastfeeding online (like the La Leche League) , but it's probably NOT on a mass-appeal site like Facebook. On top of that, Facebook is a private company. They can make their own rules about what they put on thier site.

I found this quote to be the most interesting from the story:

A member for almost four years, Farley has nearly 400 friends on Facebook, a network she'd be hard-pressed to replicate if she moved to a smaller site with more lenient photo policies. She uses Facebook more than e-mail to stay in touch with far-flung high school and college friends. She especially likes to check out pictures of their babies and share photos of hers. But with a 9-month-old, "it's almost hard to get a picture of me not nursing," she said. (emphasis added by me)

If you've accumulated 400 friends on Facebook, you have time to snap a few pictures. I've had three nine-month old children in my lifetime. Two of my sisters-in-law have had twins and, thus, two nine-month olds in the house at the same time while nursing. We've all been able to produce many, many, many, many, many pictures of our babies without their mother's breasts exposed. In fact, I can assure you that we do not have ANY pictures of our children with their mother's breasts exposed (not that I know of, anyway). It wasn't hard or "almost hard" at all.

Why Do I Still Giggle At This?

I finally decided to take the Facebook plunge today. I have no desire to really get into Facebook, but I want to be able to see the pages of friends and family who have sent me links. So, don't get too excited. Personally, I'm a LinkedIn user. LinkedIn is like the Facebook/Myspace for business professionals (in my opinion).

Anyway, I was signing up and the immature schoolboy in me couldn't help but laugh at this...
Of course I will "select sex." But does this mean I can only select it on my birthday? It's just a weird way to select whether you're male or female. On a related note, I was pleasantly surprised that "male" and "female" were the only two selections.