Maybe I am misguided, but this strikes me as yet another reason that teenagers/children have no business being on Facebook.
What could a 17 year old girl, a 22 year old guy, and a 27 year old woman possibly have in common? I can only think of one thing. They had been out drinking, but alcohol does not seem to have been the cause of them passing out on the train tracks and eventually ending up splattered all over the area.
We all did stupid shit when we were young. We all survived (well most of us anyway) situations that could have gone wrong. We all took chances.
That is part of the process. That is how we learned the boundaries. I get that part.
I was never inside a bar to drink until I was 21. Don't get me wrong, I did more than my share of drinking. I am not here to say I was any kind of an angel. I most certainly was not.
I can't think of a situation where I would have had an opportunity to meet, let alone, hang out with people that were 5 and 10 years older than myself.
Because of the lack of technology, I was mostly restricted to people that were in my general age group. I am not here to say that it was better, it just limited the possibilities significantly.
I was also not a 17 year old girl that was out (from the night before) at 6 am, passed out on train tracks. I would never have been permitted (by my parents) to engage in such an activity. I was expected to be home, in my bed at 6 am, not out wandering around with strangers I met on Facebook.
No, Facebook is not inherently evil. It does, however, give people access to our children. People we do not know or have any way of knowing. There is no real way to know who your children are interacting with in these social media circles.
It also give our children access to things that they are in no way mature enough to handle.
Perhaps I led a sheltered life. Perhaps my parents were too protective.
As a teenager, I certainly thought they were.
Now as a parent, I see the danger. I see it all around. I see how innocent they are and how our duty of care is as a parent.
It is a battle to walk the line between allowing them to explore, to learn the lessons, and protect them at the same time. My job will never be completely over, I realize that, but it is still my job.
No Facebook for these babies. Sorry Zuck, but you will not get my kids. I will stand in front that stupid train before I let everyone with an internet connection have access to my kids.