Won't Find my Dirt on Facebook.com; Poor Jonathan Frist

I'm glad I learned my lesson early. In case you're not under 22 years old, you probably aren't too familiar with the website FaceBook.com. According to Alexa, it's the 57th most visited site on the net--and it's a monster cash-cow because as a social network for college (and recently high-school) students, the site is able to target advertising based on how students describe themselves. For example, I can advertise something to conservative, single, male, college students that listen to Dave Matthews Band, go to school in DC, and live in Alaska. That's some powerful stuff--which is why the two Harvard students that created the site are fending off bids from all over Silicon Valley...(seriously, read on)...

College students post pictures on the site too, and can belong to FaceBook "groups" that can share messages and host together a group--specific FaceBook website. The Georgetown College Republicans and my Take Back Georgetown Day both had these types of groups--and their membership is available for anyone to see. Some people get pretty silly with group names and also with describing themselves--which means some politicians' kids are ripe for the media's picking...

Today, Roll Call--in it's "Heard on the Hill" section--reports attention being paid to the FaceBook profile of Jonathan Frist, Bill Frist's middle son. The Majority Leader's Office is defending/distancing itself from Jon's membership in a group called "Jonathan Frist appreciation For 'Waking Up White People' Group" and another group that has in its description: "No Jews Allowed. Just Kidding. No seriously."

Sen. Frist's youngest son, Bryan, writes this in his profile: "I was born an American by Gods Amazing Grace. Lets bomb some people."

A lot of important college students do not have profiles. I went to school with Pierce Bush, the President's nephew, and he certainly did. As does one of the Olsen twins, but not the Bush daughters (believe me, I've searched). It's almost hard, seriously, not to have some incriminating stuff on your profile. Someone takes a picture of you doing something dumb at a party, and it's 'tagged' to your profile.

You get upwards of 10 invitations to join different groups during a normal week, and sometimes, you just accept them all because you don't want to offend the crazy friend that invited you, and because who would have though anybody really cared. I learned my lesson though. Here are a list of groups that I've been invited to join and declined just in case a future employer looks (and they are now, especially financial firms): "Clinton for Dictator," "Jesus is nobody's home-boy, but He's still way cool and agrees that moral relativism sucks," "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy," "You Forget Poland," "For Every Animal You Don't Eat, I will Eat Three," "Hillary Clinton for President…of Hell," "Hoyas concerned about the future hegemony of the Pacific Rim..and China's scary army.”

You get the picture. These social networks are the new HUGE trend. Myspace.com, which is Facebook's predecessor, is the 5th most trafficked site on the internet! It's a shame that aspiring politicians and the kin of public servants cannot participate.