Facing Up

My best friend and I, comparing notes, soon discovered that “Never change” was the most popular inscription from people we barely knew. So we started writing “Never change” in their yearbooks. But we didn’t mean it—we did want them to change. Such dynamics apply now to Facebook. What is different is that such “fake” or “teenage” behavior is on display for the entire world to see and judge. It is possible, for instance, to look at things that you wrote on someone’s wall as far back as seventh grade (or even earlier, depending on when you joined). I searched recently and unearthed plenty of mortifying exchanges with friends, acquaintances, and crushes.