Perfect example of why PNMs should make their Facebook pages private
A friend recently asked if I would write a recommendation for her cousin, who is going through recruitment this fall. I told her that I would be happy to, and to please send me her information. The other day I sat down to write the rec, but before I got started, I looked to see if the PNM had a facebook page. She did, and it was public. I started looking through her pictures, and there was nothing distasteful or inappropriate (I often hear people say "don't post anything that you wouldn't want your parents to see"). There were a number of pictures of her and a boy, identified as her boyfriend, and also a few of a child, some as a newborn, some older, and some of her holding the baby, who bore a very strong resemblence to her boyfriend. There was one photo of the PNM, the boyfriend, and the baby, obviously at a high school event, and the caption of the photo was "our little family" or something similar. The next picture was her holding the baby and the caption was "my baby". The impression that I had was that the baby was literally the child of the PNM and the boyfriend.
I logged off to think about it for a few minutes, and decided to look at the pictures again. I went back to her facebook page and looked at the first picture, and it was only when I scrolled down on the screen that I saw someone had posted "Is that your baby?" and she said, "Ha! No, it's (boyfriend's) nephew!"
Sounds like she's a typical teenager who is just a little baby crazy (like I was, so I assume that's typical, maybe not) and likes to imagine that she and boyfriend will have a cute little family someday. Her facebook friends who know her in real life know the story (mostly, guess not the person who asked about the baby), but people who don't know her and see her page draw their own conclusions from what they see.
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