Day Twelve: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Maybe I’m a little judgmental.

Facebook is designed for College students as a social networking site. And soon it expanded to High Schoolers, as well as older people who wanted to get in touch with old friends. And great! It’s a wonderful site and I have no problem with any of that.

But then again, the last time I checked you were required to be fourteen years old to join the site. Kids lie about their age in order to get on the site, and what’s worse is that their parents knowingly let them. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen things on my Facebook page that I don’t enjoy seeing, and I definitely would not want a child to see that.

I was flipping through my best friend’s little sister’s site, she’s fourteen, and noticed that one of the girls who commented on a post was ten years old. Fourteen or thirteen seems young to me, but I can’t stop them at that age. But when you’re ten years old, it’s a little young to be on a site like that.

My brother is ten years old, and I couldn’t imagine allowing him to have a site like that. At that age, you shouldn’t be exposed to the Internet at such high levels. Quite honestly, if I learned that my brother had a Facebook I would be calling my parents upset.

Childhood is lost these days. No longer are we spending our innocent years outdoors and watching Playhouse Disney. Instead our younger generation has role models like Miley Cyrus, who at first was an innocent girl on Hannah Montana that has sense turned into a throughly awful role model. I can’t believe that she is taking her position as a role model like this. It makes me sick to think that it’s people like her inspiring the minds of our youth.

And what’s worse is that people allow this. Parents see the things that their children are being exposed to and ignore it. Saying that it’s no big deal, just innocent fun. And then they wonder why kids are growing up at such a quick rate, why childhood depression is at an all time peak. Why young girls are turning to sex as young as sixth grade.

Believe me, I have no problem with Facebook, or any messaging site for that matter. I use Facebook daily, as well as Tumblr, Twitter, Livejournal, and Blogger. They’re wonderful, fun sites. I have no problem with the Internet. If you know me, you know that I have a lot of wonderful friends that I wouldn’t know without it. But what makes me sick is that kids are growing up so fast. They’re turning to sites they’re not mature enough for.

I honestly believe people should start making an effort to get the younger generation away from the Internet, at least until they’re old enough to handle it. And quite honestly, at ten they’re not. All it takes is a few simple clicks before they’re dragged off on to sites they’re not ready for.

The Internet is wonderful. It’s full of sites that are full of great information. And they make a lot of sites that are child-friendly. I’m not saying that children shouldn’t use the Internet, only that they should be monitored. Parents should stop using the computer like a toy and make the effort to protect their children.

But maybe that’s just me.

worst. idea. ever.

Day Eleven: A Photo Of You Taken Recently:

This craptastic photo was taken a couple days ago, when my tips were purple and adorable. It often occurs to me that I still look like a five year old.

Day Ten: A Photo Of You Taken Over Ten Years Ago:

Me with my two cousins. Left to right: Me, Cede, Bretta. We're cute and young, and dressed in horrid 90's clothing. The decade before Hannah Montana and trashy kids. Those were the days.

Day Nine: A Photo That You Took

I decided to do something really fun with this one. Looking through my photos, I realize I have 37 consecutive months of photography. Each month has a photo of myself, so I went through and put them all in. You'll notice February is missing. I did that on purpose. And to go with the "theme" of the day, all except approximately six of these were taken by me. Here we go:

#1 - January 2007:

#2 - February 2007:

#3 - March 2007:

#4 - April 2007:

#5 - May 2007:

#6 - June 2007:

#7 - July 2007:

#8 - August 2007:

#9 - September 2007:

#10 - October 2007:

#11 - November 2007:

#12 - December 2007:

#13 - January 2008:

#14 - February 2008:

#15 - March 2008

#16 - April 2008

#17 - May 2008:

#18 - June 2008:

#19 - July 2008:

#20 - August 2008:

#21 - September 2008:

#22 - October 2008:

#23 - November 2008:

#24 - December 2008:

#25 - January 2009:

#26 - February 2009:

#27 - March 2009:

#28 - April 2009:

#29 - May 2009:

#30 - June 2009:

#31 - July 2009:

#32 - August 2009:

#33 - September 2009:

#34 - October 2009:

#35 - November 2009:

#36 - December 2009:

#37 - January 2010

Day Eight: A Photo That Makes You Angry/Sad.

I had a lot of trouble with this one. I didn't really know what to pick as a photo that made me angry. Lots of things make me angry. But I wanted this to be entirely personal, a photo from my own collection. I went with something that made me sad. This photo in itself doesn't make me sad, but the memory that goes along with it does.

I don't have a lot of photos from that summer, something I'm exceptionally thankful for. I have photos of them, but very few of myself. I don't want to see photos of me. I don't want to see how miserable I had to have been. But this photo makes me sad thinking about what led up to this event. Weeks of sadness. Cuts on my arms. Years of feeling on and off sad. Despair.

Depression is scary stuff. But I finally got help. But this photo represents that summer. And it makes me so, so sad.

Day Seven: A Photo That Makes You Happy

This is my best friend. Honestly and truly. I've known her for so much of my life, I don't remember when she wasn't there. We haven't been consistent friends. But I know that no matter what, she's always a phone call away.