Facebook First Impressions

This is why I hate Facebook. I see all these pictures of people I don't know and I make assumptions.

Like a racing family friend's son's girlfriend. I don't know her. Never will. I see the son maybe a couple times a year when/if he comes out to race. But his mom posted pictures of the girlfriend's senior prom (the son is graduated) on Facebook and I looked through them and I formed opinions of her. Very negative opinions. I refrained from clicking on her page because I fear it will only make things worse. And it would. I'd have a whole new set of opinions on this girl I will never meet. I already view this girl as snobby, average intelligence, needing a nose job, probably slutty, and annoying. And here's the thing, I can prove most those wrong right now. She's not snobby or else the mom wouldn't rave about her to my mom. She doesn't need a nose job at all. She's not wearing anything to make me think she would be promiscuous and she has been dating this boy for over a year. She's probably not an airhead b/c the boy went through his phase of those (each one lasted about 2 weeks). I can't say anything to her intelligence, though if I went to her Facebook page I'm sure I could find her college (or lack thereof) and have new opinions of her! Even if the two get married and my family is invited (as I suspect will someday happen, the families are insanely close), I probably won't attend and will never meet this girl. So why is it that I can have opinions of her just from seeing the standard photos taken before prom?

It's why I like meeting people in person much better. My brother graduated yesterday and after graduation we had a barbecue at our house. Steak, not pork - for some reason people out here think pork when you say bbq. Out West we do things up all fancy like, I guess. I digress. It was small, family and racing based. My mom's best friend showed up. My aunt and uncle were visiting. Our crew chief brought his two year old son (his wife showed up after her nursing shift). Then there's B. B is loud, loves to eat and is always telling funny stories. He stayed at our house for 3 weeks back when I was in high school. He was in the middle of choosing a school out here, racing, and looking for a house. Our family became close. B brought his friend in the same program, G to the bbq. First impression wasn't good. But I let it be pushed aside when I realized how similar he and I were. He spent the first 20 minutes at my house outside talking on his phone. Major choices aside (he's motorsports and electrical engineering, plus CS minor), he reminded me of myself. At first he was shy, let B do all the talking, but slowly broke out of his shell as we hit on topics he could relate to. The EE comment came after my brother saying he was on the robotics team for the high school. His CS minor prompted a small discussion about Mac v. Windows which led to Steam/Valve which led to should I un-partition my laptop. When he heard my brother's text alert (Navi's "hey! listen!"), he played his FFVII battle ringtone. I played my Portal ringtone. He was able to hold his own about the Gulf Coast against my aunt, who is so opinionated she drives ME crazy.

But had I just been given G's Facebook page? I totally would have brushed him off. He's friends with B which makes me a little hesitant - B is so overwhelming, someone with my personality gets freaked out sometimes. And G's page makes him look like a douche (I'm not friends with him, stop looking right now people, I'm allowed to stalk him to prove this experiment) who is just going to college because his parents made him. He likes country music, an immediate dislike in my book, and does an incredible job of hiding his nerdiness which makes him come off as a frat boy/jock.

So what do you guys think? Do you friend people you don't really know? Maybe you met at a party and talked for just five minutes and friended them (or were friended) after. Or maybe they're your boyfriend's cousin's boyfriend (true story). Do you form new opinions of them after looking at their Facebook page that you just can't drop, even if you can reasonably justify the opinions as false?