I don't look at photos of people who are my friends in facebook. Occasionally, I 'like' a picture or to that's already gathered tens of other likes, and sometimes I check too see if any of my friends has a photo that deserves to be mocked.
It's the people I am NOT friends with whose albums I enjoy. Hmm, 4 common friends you say? Good enough. Lets go at pictures, pictures of xxx. Oh, privacy conscious person? No problem. I usually click on the first few friends of the person, and at least one of them has privacy options that lets me view the original person's pictures. It's not the pictures themselves, it's the sleuthing, and poking and stalking--all the work that goes into gaining access to those precious few photos-- that makes it interesting.
Would I ever meet this person? I hope not. Dude, he's a guy and he's hugging a pink doll. I have nothing personal against the color pink, or dolls, or a guy hugging large dolls, but when someone starts pretending that a doll is his girlfriend, I am freaked out. But I want to see more. Lets see what more this doofus has in store. Oh, KFC? Been there, done that, gotten the diarrhoea. And he rides a big bike. What's that on the keychain? Errgh, I am the creepy stalker here, and I am totally freaked out. Gotta go dude. I need to see some of your prettier friends.
This girl. Six common friends. I vaguely remember N talking about her. He doesn't know who she is either, but he's added her anyway. Maybe I should send her a request too? The profile picture looks good. Maybe not. I should look for other pictures. After half and our of poking around her friends' accounts, I realize the entire gang is pretty suave about privacy options. There's absolutely no way I can see how she looks. Maybe I should add her as a friend after all. If she's gone so far to protect her privacy, there must be something there that needs to be protected. Do I add her. Or do I not. I decide I don't want to add her. Not because I am scared of being a stalker, but I realize that there's an extremely good chance that she's some cousin of mine that I don't know about. There's nothing creepier and crazier than stalking your family, I tell you that. Don't ever stalk your family. Ever.
And then there's this person. 2 mutual friends. I know the family history, quirks, favourites, relationships, and other things that are to know after going through the 800 photos. Oooh laah la! I have more important things to do-- I gotta' type 7000 words, I gotta send lots of mails, I have to read, but everything else comes after this. I muust know how the Prom went, what happened in their family vacation to Europe, why their dog's been getting sick lately, and how come no one likes Uncle Fred, and other things. There's no greater joy than the joy of learning everything about random people. I feel like some CIA--no, Mossad agent. Look carefully at the attache on this person, AgentGT! Family background, work history, preferences, everything. All the best in your mission! Here's a glass that will let you see through clothes-- we stole it from Dhirendra Shah before he died.