There a man life lessons to be learned from television series How I Met Your Mother — from how to craft the perfect “get psyched” mixed CD, to finding out that nothing good happens after 2 a.m. However, my most recent favorite comes from the “Mystery vs. History” episode where Ted and his date promise not to do any secret research online about one another prior to their first date.

Lesson #45 – Don’t Facebook Stalk A First Date

As much as we may not want to admit it, Facebook has become an integral part of the college experience. We use our profiles to track our lives and the lives of others’ and more importantly, we do it all the time. At this point, social media stalking has become second nature. So when the guy in your sociology class finally asks you out, you almost can’t help but look him up on every social media platform you can think of.

Facebook and Twitter are a silver platter of what we want the world to know about us. We put up pictures, statuses, songs, interests and so much more, knowing that it’s all fair game for our “friends” to judge.

The key to abandoning social media research before a date is to figure out the reason why you do it in the first place. Do you seek security from having prepared conversation topics in your first date arsenal, or from finding out that you have mutual friends? Do you like going through his personal interests to see if the two of have anything in common? Are you trying to figure out if he’s close with his family? Or maybe you want to see if he’s just another frat star with Daddy’s Big Texas Oil money and an ego complex.

There are a few things about first dates that don’t go away no matter how much you Facebook stalk the guy beforehand, like the potential for awkwardness whether it’s an unexpected lull in conversation, or those moments when you try to figure out how to pay the bill.

We all prejudge people based on their social media profiles to some extent, but with this we lose, piece by piece, every opportunity to genuinely get to know the person in front of us. Doing a little pre-first date research may seem harmless at the time, but it can destroy your love life. As with most things, striking a balance is imperative, and it’s no different when it comes to Facebook overflowing into the real world. Take everything on Facebook with a grain of salt, and always remember that there’s a voice behind the pictures and comments, that holds more value in real life.

Multiple photo albums of a guy with his fraternity brothers in neon and Dockers, doesn’t completely convey who he is as a person, just as it wouldn’t for a guy with the best Spotify playlists and most artistic profile pictures. Facebook is, at best, only one dimension of who a person is, and certainly doesn’t promise that you’ll have the best date of your life, simply because you both like Volkswagens, Apple products and Foster The People. Let people have the chance to surprise you and, in turn, give yourself the chance to surprise you.

Got it? Feel empowered? Good. Now get the first 44 rules of the Single Girl Society

Right now, America is experiencing economic hardships. Times so tough that even our multi-million dollar making, jump shot shooting, around-the-rim slam dunking NBA ballers can’t even catch a break! Diehard fans’ worst nightmare has officially come to fruition: the NBA lock-out is here.

Here’s the low-down on the lock-out, for those of you who don’t know: players don’t want to concede to more pay cuts, but managers and owners don’t want to (or can’t afford to) give players the salaries they think they are owed. Until they get what they demand, professional athletes are going to act like my 12-year-old sister and pout.

Fine. Be babies, guys. Not like I wanted to wear my Knicks jersey anytime soon.

Then, I had an awesome idea. What if our larger-than-life athletes – instead of stomping their feet and throwing a temper tantrum – got on with their lives in lieu of the lockout? I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out on this one. College kids know way better than anyone what to do when you’ve got nothing to do, right? And college girls know how the best activities. I mean, really…who wants to sit around playing video games all day, guys?

So, since you’ve got tons of time on your hands Bron-Bron, it’s time to step off your throne as the King of Cleveland and take some advice from the real powers that be: college girls.

We know, you’ve already vacationed in the West Indies twice this year, bought four new Rolls Royce’s…hell, you even convinced Jay Z and Beyoncé to have a baby. Don’t worry if you’re all out of ideas on ways to spend our money because like the do-gooders that we are, we’ve got some tips for you…

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A little while ago, we conducted The Most Epic Facebook Survey Ever. We asked you guys about everything from how annoying sonogram photos in your newsfeed are, to how many of you have broken up with someone simply by changing your status. We also asked you about Facebook stalking (don’t act like you’ve never done it). If you took the survey, you’ll know that we asked you to define Facebook stalking.

And you guys gave us weird, creepy, hilarious and wacky answers. We learned that some of you are really weird and will probably be arrested soon if you continue your stalking ways, and we learned that some of you are practically undercover detectives when it comes to finding info on your crushes and exes.

Here are 50 ways you guys defined Facebook stalking.

1.  Some call it stalking, I call it L O V E. Enough said.

2.  Brute forcing someone’s password to friend request yourself and monitor their chats.

3. “Facebook Stalking” is like rape, without actually committing a crime. You stalk your prey and watch their every move. However, they can’t know you’re doing it.

4. Sending creepy messages, viewing someones page more than once every few days, looking at EVERY pic and status update.

5. Tracking someone who won’t friend you to try and find out what they are doing. Also, scoping out your friends’ friends based on their profile pic.

6.  The art of checking out girls through impressive internet means.

7.  Find out info about ppl you dont know to later stalk them in real life, For example with a fake facebook profile.

8.  Someone checks where and what someones doin so they can meet up with them “by accident”or just watch them from a distance.

9.  Sitting around searching for people at random and ogling at photos of people you’re never going to meet.

10.  Following your “check-ins” to find you.

11.  When someone looks at someone’s profile every second of the day every day, or likes their every photo and status, or comments.

12. Repeatedly checking someone’s profile that you most likely barely know because you have an unhealthy obsession with their life.

13. Facebook stalking is when you check someone’s page every day to see if they updated their status, google song lyrics they’re using as their status, going through all of their pics, etc.  Also known as creeping.

14. Looking for hot chicks and seeing if their profile is set to private or not.

15. Creeping someone’s page to find out things about them, to see what their doing, to see who’s wall they write on, and to see who writes on theirs.

16. Creeping until you feel like you know the person, their likes and dislikes, their friends, and entire family tree.

17.  Scoping out the profiles of exes and/or people you don’t have as friends.

18.  Looking at people you used to like or be in a relationship with, because you are crazy and delusional.

19. Constantly refreshing their profile to check on their every status and liking every one of their pictures.

20. The act of religiously checking someone else’s facebook. Whether it’s your friend, boyfriend, enemy, etc.

21.  It’s not stalking, it’s window shopping.

22.  There’s no difference between “To Catch a Predator” and facebook stalking.  Same thing except fewer chatrooms and more pokes.

23. Using Facebook to track the online activity of friends, significant others, exes, friends of exes, bosses, coworkers, general enemies, etc.

24. There’s a difference between creeping and stalking. Stalking is when they know.

25. Checked out a cute guy’s facebook. Two hours later, you’re looking at the pictures of his high school friend’s cousin’s girlfriend’s friend and not knowing how you got there.

26. When somebody who doesn’t speak to you follows your updates on a day to day basis.

27. Facebook stalking is more acceptable than not having facebook at all. You do the math.

28. Setting up mobile alerts for the persons messages, also having direct link to their page on your bookmarks or favorites.

29. Creeping on his second cousins best friend’s wedding pictures to see how he looks in semi formal wear!

30. Seeing a girl randomly on the street or in class then proceeding to look her name up in the student directory…like a boss!!!!

31. Thinking their life is your life and or thinking you can’t live without them.

32. My sole relationship with several men, characterized by a constant need for checking his wall, relationships, etc.

33.  Being in everyone’s business on the slick.

34.  Liking the status of all the girls who don’t fucking know you.

35.  21+ guys adding friends’ sisters as friends on Facebook, then proceeding to cyber sex with them.

36. Just casually checking out someone’s facebook profile like, 20 times an hour.

37. The secret act of going through someones entire profile.  Seeing where they work, what languages they speak, that they like Fight Club. Then spending the next 30 mins going through their 177 photos from the ”Cancun Vaca” album.

38.  Facebook stalking is what makes Facebook worthwhile.

39.  Non-stop Poking!

40.  Highly Addictive.

41.  The slightly less awesome version of back-stalking which is looking at someone’s pics backwards to see how fat they’ve gotten since high school. Or even more fun, back-stalking yourself.

42. Look up a person constantly, looking through all their pictures and wall posts. Basically what it was created for.

43.  Research.

44.  How do you NOT stalk someone on FB? FB is the very definition of stalking.

45.  It’s a Necessary Evil !!!!

46.  No such thing

47.  Clicking a link to a friend’s page casually-  leading to 4 hours of intense research on all of their friends and friends-of-friends.

48. Browsing people’s profiles that you don’t really know just because you can.

49.  An activity that’s done in secrecy, although everyone knows everyone does it. Also known as “Facebook creeping”. Basically, you choose your target wisely.

50. Where one creeps the shit out of another person while online and the person being creeped on doesn’t know about it.

Seventeen continues to perturb me in ways that Glamour never has. I just can’t get over the one-dimensional messages this magazine is sending to girls. Maybe my pearl-clutching is a little out of hand, but it makes me nervous that right there on the cover is the tagline “Hair & Makeup Ideas That Make You Instantly Prettier!” Like teenage girls don’t face enough pressure in regards to conforming and being pretty in their every day lives. That said, I do appreciate that most of the girls who appear in the fashion spreads aren’t preternaturally pretty and actually look like girls you’d see wandering around a high school.

The relationship advice is mostly pretty harmless. Their section that is dedicated to getting inside the male mind was pretty standard, although I wish they would have included a snarky comment next to the guy who says he’s always thinking of ways to go even further sexually – stay classy, William, aged 19. Their quiz asking, “Do Guys Think You’re Desperate,” though, was way too harsh!

Seventeen says: You immediately friend guys you meet on Facebook and check for signs that you might be a good match.
Jasmine says: Perhaps this is just my stalkery curious nature, but I fail to see the problem with this. The best part about online networking is the opportunity to assess the situation. I’ve dodged many a bullet just by during a quick Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn search.

Seventeen says: When you click with someone, you can’t help imagining you two as a couple.
Jasmine says: Is that not normal? I know it’s all cool to be detached and apathetic about relationships, but if you hit it off with someone, it’s natural to mentally explore the great possibilities.

Seventeen says: You like to become besties with your crush’s friends – it’s a good way to get closer to him.
Jasmine says: I am like 99 percent sure that Seventeen has published articles encouraging this behavior. And besides, if you start seeing someone, chances are you’re going to meet and have to make a good impression on his friends anyway, so you might as well get the balling rolling.

Seventeen says: When talking to your crush, you find yourself writing marathon texts or FB messages.
Jasmine says: Okay, turning what are supposed to be two-sided convos into a one-sided monologue is never a positive attribute. This is legit.

People are looking at your social networking profiles.

Shocked, right? Not so much? Yeah, I thought so. But you might actually be shocked to find out that 80% of admissions officers are now using Facebook to learn more about their applicants, and that a student’s social media presence does in fact affect their decisions.

As a way to counteract this, some admissions officers suggest that applicants like or follow their college of choice on Facebook or Twitter and use the social network as a way to stand out amongst applicants. But would you really want your potential college to have access to everything you post on Facebook? And should they really expect to? When you post something on the internet publicly you have to expect that people will read it. But should you expect that your college admissions officer will be searching for it? Should you expect that every college admissions officer is going to Facebook stalk every applicant now?

One admissions officer admitted to being prejudiced to applicants after viewing Facebook profiles, but if she hadn’t gone looking she wouldn’t have been prejudiced in the first place. Is it okay for admissions officers to make decisions based on information they find on social networking, which might easily be misinterpreted, or should they base decisions solely on the material sent to them like grades, SAT scores, and admissions essays, which albeit, can also be misrepresented?

What do you think? Head on over to Huffington Post to get all the details, then come back here and tell us, what do you think of this.

There was lots of Facebook drama in the news last week when we found out that the new Breakup Notifier was kicked off the site. (Now if only my mother could get kicked off the site….)

The “Breakup Notifier” let you take a bunch of your friends that are listed as in a relationship and plug them into the app. If and when they changed their relationship status, the app would e-mail you to let you know. It was stalking made simple.

Even though we thought this app was an amazing/creepy idea, it still didn’t solve all of our Facebook woes. There’s still some work to be done — and now that some space in the app market has cleared up, we had a few ideas of our own.

1. Facebook Photoshop for Profile Pics. You know how sometimes you have a picture you’re just dying to default, but you can’t because there’s this one tiny issue. That zit that just wouldn’t go away. Your twitchy eye. Hair in front of your face. Photoshop would solve all of your problems, but you’re not laying out the cash just for a cute pic. Well, with this app you wouldn’t have to. Simply upload the photo and crop, cut, and airbrush away. No one would ever remember what real people look like, but hey, priorities people, priorities.

2. A “See Friendship” app. Facebook already has this, I  know. But it’s limited by hidden photos and private profiles and all those other necessary privacy settings that keep people from losing their jobs over what they post on Facebook. But if there was an app that would let me see each and every interaction each and every one of my Facebook friends had with each and every one of their Facebook friends it would make it so much easier to determine whether or not that cute guy from Econ is dating the girl who writes on his wall daily or if she’s just a crazy stalker. (Unlike me.)

3.  A Friend Filter. An app that notifies you of all that activity on your most recently viewed pages upon login. Think about how much time you would save if you didn’t have to check your BFFs page daily or scroll through the Newsfeed to find out the latest info on your frenemy. Instead, upon login, you’d get a detailed report of all the activities that have taken place on your most viewed profile pages.

4. An automatic untagger. It’s happened to all of us. A night out with friends in which for one reason or another you take lots and lots of highly unflattering pictures. Your friend posts them regardless, and tags you in all of them. But because you’ve fallen off the face of the planet had a lot going on that week you never made it on to see said horrendous photos until much later. Which means that for days those terrible pictures showed up in your friends’ newsfeeds, on your profile page, and in that banner thing above your wall that the new Facebook is so fond of. Quickly you untag the photos. But the damage has already been done. Unless there was an app that filtered out and automatically untagged your unflattering photos. Not terribly realistic but a girl can dream, can’t she?

5. An app that lets you know who’s been creeping your profile. They say it can’t be done. They say it would ruin Facebook. They say it would ruin relationships. And that’s probably all true, but still I can’t help but wish for an app that would let me see who’s been stalking my page. My friends? My enemies? The ex? The crush?  The information would probably simultaneously enrage and enlighten, but you know what they say, knowledge is power and all that. So I’d really like for Facebook to get this app going… but I think I should be the only one with access to it. Because no one needs to know the profiles that I’m stalking visiting. So yeah, I think I’m the only one who should have access to this. I think that would be best.

What do you think? Which apps do you think Facebook needs to get moving on?  And what do you think of the Breakup Notifier?

Because apparently that creeper sitting next to you in Calc class might still be able to get all of your Facebook information if you’re using a wireless network to access the internet. Which, on a college campus, or in an internet cafe, or you know, anywhere, you probably are.

Websites like Gmail use “encrypted HTTPS protocol” to prevent this from happening. They secure all of your information by encrypting your login cookies and the rest of your data. But Facebook? Not so much. So even though that random older dude staring at you from behind his laptop in Starbucks can’t read that e-mail you’re sending your professor, he might still be able to see that Facebook message you’re  sending your boyfriend. According to Gawker.com, one blogger sat down at a local Starbucks and was able to steal 20-40 Facebook identities in 30 minutes with the help of a program called Firesheep. The inventor claims to have created the software to encourage companies like Facebook to lock down their systems, and apparently Facebook is finally listening.

[editors note: SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) allows all of the data that you send over the internet to be encrypted. If an unwanted guest (we'll use the word Hacker), decides that he/she wants to "sniff traffic," or collect all of the information that goes back and forth between peoples laptops at a Starbucks, means that every single laptop in that Starbucks that isn't over a secure connection, is vulnerable to having their data collected (user names, passwords, credit card information, cookies, etc). While this is a scary thought, keep in mind that you can protect yourself by logging into websites that utilize SSL (that extra 's' that you'll see after 'http' which online banks most always use by default).]

Their secure browsing program is launching today, and it will apparently take “a few weeks” to get to everyone. But you should check every day until you have this option and then enable it immediately.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Click on Account then Account Settings, at the top right hand corner of your Facebook page.

2. Then click on Account Security. Above Account Activity you should see a an option for Secure Browsing.

3. Check the little box that says “Browse Facebook on a secure connection” and then save your changes.

And, wah lah, you’re creeper free. For now, at least. Until we find out about another way that just about anyone can access your supposedly private profile. Don’t worry though, CollegeCandy has got you covered.

None of these people are my friends and I now know they have a love for our favorite sparkley vampire

OK, so I don’t want to beat a dead horse here/lecture you like your dad, but that’s what I’m about to do. And you’re gonna like it.

Today’s lecture:

You have to be careful about what you’re putting online.

I know, I know – we’ve said it a bajillion times on CollegeCandy. And yeah, I know you’ve set your Facebook privacy settings and re-set them every time Zucks makes a change that leaves you more exposed than that time you thought you locked the bathroom door at the frat party and you got caught squatting with your lady bits out, but I have just learned that none of that matters. Thanks to some holes in Facebook security, it is possible for anyone (even if they’re one of those weird people who don’t have Facebook accounts…seriously, WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!) to search for anyone’s status updates.

And someone set up a website to do just that.

I’m taking all status updates. From the just-for-my-fellow-drunken-BFFs “Just downed a bottle of tequila, dropped my cell in the toilet and now we’re going streaking” to the only-people-who-know-me-and-would-never-rob-me-can-see-this “Hitting up Mexico with the fam for 2 weeks! HOTNESS,” it’s all out there for everyone with an internet connection to see. Oh and don’t worry, you don’t even have to post the status – it brings up any status with your name in it, as well as showing all results for your name.

The site lets you search public Facebook updates using Facebook’s own search service. And if you’re logged in while using it, you get the added bonus of viewing the searchee’s full profile. Creeptastic? I’d say so.

With this new site, your status updates are now available for the entire planet to view now and for.e.ver (Sandlot style). Just think of how a future job, college or potential bank loan might be affected if they see some..ahem..not so flattering status updates.

Looks like my boy Markey Z isn’t so sweet after all.

But don’t start sending him hate mail just yet. I promise that this site wasn’t created with “ruining your professional life” in mind. It was actually made to make it easier for Facebook users to control and understand the privacy settings available to them. Kind of in a scaring you straight way, minus the scary prison and the possibility of getting shanked. The creators even came up with a new privacy proposal to help Markey Z make the right decisions! They also have this great idea of making all new accounts private by default. (Hey Mark, are you listening yet?) For right now though, that’s not really what people are using the site for…

So what is this site that’s exposing your personal life to the world?

Click here to see it.

I, like every other college student, spend a fair amount of time on the ‘book, from creating party events, to shameless stalking of ex boyfriends, and of course, rick rolling people like it’s my job (never gonna give you up!). There’s nothing wrong with that; I mean, that’s what Facebook is for.

Unfortunately, as Facebook becomes more and more pervasive, for some people it’s becoming less of a place to post pictures and musings from their lives and more a place to actually live them. Remember the groom who posted on Facebook during his wedding? Funny? A sign of the times? Yeah, but also a little bit pathetic. And that doesn’t even hold a candle to these most recent Facebook updates….

Clearly, the world’s complete and utter obsession with Facebook has gone way, way too far. The site that started out as an easy way for college students to connect has now turned into a place that is quickly changing the way we all interact, phasing out face to face communication and creating new social problems as it goes.

What’s next on the social network frontier? I’m afraid to find out.

Who among us has never Facebook stalked? Anyone? Seriously, anyone? It’s easy and mostly harmless, so we all do it a little bit sometimes to see how much less awesome your ex’s new girlfriend is than you, or to find out if that cutie in you American Lit class is single (and into women). It’s not a big deal, right? But when does it cross the line? According to research, one third of women check their significant other’s web browser history to see what their partners been surfing and 1 in 10 has actually hacked into their SO’s email and personal accounts to keep an eye on them. Is this just a natural extension of our tech savvy, in-everybody’s-personal-business lives, or has technology turned us into creepy Fatal Attraction candidates?

On one side, I totally get it. You’re using your guy’s laptop and the history is right there, so easy to check; it’s the exact same allure that draws guys to want to know what we carry in our purses. It’s probably not that most of these women are checking to see if their guy is frequenting online dating sites or creepy fetish porn; more than likely it’s nothing more than simple curiosity, the same way you check out what’s on someone’s bookshelf to see what they like to read. The email thing, I have a little harder time with, but still, if there’s an insecurity there and a quick peek will make a girl feel better, then as long as the guy doesn’t have anything to hide, what’s the big deal?

On the B side, though, doesn’t that whole idea kind of undercut what relationships are supposed to be about? Trust isn’t easy by any means, and of course there’s a chance of getting hurt because of it, but is it any better to live on constant alert. Of course the temptation is overwhelming when it’s all right there on his computer and you could KNOW, but isn’t the whole point of trusting someone with your heart that you take that risk willingly? And isn’t the sneaking around and spying just undercutting all of that anyway? Aren’t you the one ruining your relationship when you do that?

What do you say? Have you done the cyber spying tango, or are you strictly an innocent until proven guilty kind of girl? Would you ever invade your SO’s privacy like that, or is it unthinkable? Have you been there done that? Tell me all about it, girls – duke it out!