Social Media and Nonsense

This phone call happened. "Have you seen Anna's Facebook page?"  It came from my daughter's riding coach, Mary.  I'm all, "Anna doesn't have a Facebook page."  Knowing as I say that that Anna probably does indeed have a Facebook page.  Trey, the riding coach's son, received a "friend request" from her.  Mary sent me a screen shot of her profile picture.  Oh hell and Dammit.  The picture, although she looks great, was too much.  Too much cleavage, too much pouty -I'm trying to be sexy at 15.  Mary gives me the disclaimer about how she thought I should know and that she thinks of Anna as her own.  I get it.  Not only do I get it, I am grateful.

I try to find her page and I can't; I'm pretty sure I'm blocked.  Now I'm kinds of pissed.  I gardened all week, my knee hurts a little, I had bronchitis and the husband was gone -now this.  When she gets home from school I am there waiting, hoping to remain calm.  I say, "Let's look at your Facebook page."  She gives me that "Oh shit" look and says, "I don't have Facebook."  I say, "Look, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be sitting here wanting to see it if I wasn't 99.9% sure you have one.  I'm busy, I'm not doing this for fun."  "Okay!  God!!"  She exclaims gathering her defenses, "I got it for my email" she comes up with.  I'm all, for her email??  What the hell?  That doesn't even jive.   She reluctantly pulls it up and we discuss.

We discuss how this older man who is a friend of her friend is NOT her friend.  The dude flashing signs and colors, is not her friend either.  I explain that this is social media and her friends are Grandma, her Aunts, her cousins and the people I know she knows.  She asks if she and I are going to be fb friends and I say, "...of course, but not because we are friends".  It's more of a mothering and less of a "friending".  All I can think of is the 60 girls who disappeared form our area in the last year.

We happened across her friend, Hope's page.  Holy cleavage, Batman.  Hope's friends are mostly older men.  Men.  Not teenage boys, of course there is a lot of them too.  Now I'm in this conundrum of do I tell her mom?  I appreciated the heads up from Mary, so I shoot the mom a quick text, "Hey in the interest of teen safety, I was going over fb stuff with Anna and happened across Hope's page.  I think you should check it  out."  The mom wanted me to clarify what she was looking for.  I replied, "boobs" thinking she would definitely look at everything.  She wanted me to clarify cleavage or actual boobs.  I'm all ???  I can't even.

The pics are still up, the "friends" are still there lurking and the parent ratted me out to the kid.  Apparently not everyone gets it or is grateful.

“A monster. You and your friends, all of you. Pretty monsters. It's a stage all girls go through. If you're lucky you get through it without doing any permanent damage to yourself or anyone else.” 
― Kelly Link

I'm going to water my freshly laid garden, ice up my knee and draw a sun.  I may stop at the liquor store and get some whiskey -for that lingering bronchial cough.  I'm also going to pray.  "Dear God, don't let me f up my kids and please, little baby Jesus, help me keep them safe."

In the interest of art and writing, I am plugging in 1,000 words a day on the book.  I am also waiting on the note cards.  I'm trying a different paper.  Wish me luck and keep an eye out, they'll make a great mother's day gift!

David Bowie got it.