The fledgling social network was becoming the hot new thing on college campuses around the country. It presented itself as a site where you could gossip and plan parties and find out what you missed in class, all while updating everyone on the details of your daily life, compelling and shallow alike.

And it was closed to everyone except college students with a ".edu" email address — no embarrassing teachers or parents to hassle you online. Cool!

At that time, I was a newly accepted college entrant and had contemplated joining Facebook so that I might keep on top of my uproarious social life, but my technophile dad beat me to the punch, registering an account using my new college email address so he, the curious and unhip adult, could check out "what kids are doing online these days." After an uneventful 30 minutes of exploring, he came clean, reset the password, and gave me control of my Facebook account.