Let’s imagine for a minute that it’s 1999. I could go back farther to prove my point, but I’m more familiar with this time. OK, so let’s then picture that we’re in class. You sit down, do all the normal stuff that you usually do, and then out of the corner of your eye, you notice someone — a grand, beautiful someone.

Now it used to be that you would have to eventually muster up the courage to go over and talk to him or her. You’d spend weeks trying to find any piece of information about the mystery girl or guy — spying to find out their name, their interests, asking friends if they know anything. Since there was no such thing as Facebook, literally everything about this person was something new. There was still mystery left in people.

Fast forward to 2010 and let’s replay the same scenario. What do we do when we find someone cute in class? Well, instead of making any kind of move, we just find out his or her name and Facebook them.

In just one click, we can find out a person’s religious views, favorite movies and the kind of friends they generally have. Information that used to take ages to find out about someone is now all right here for anyone to view. As a result, I have to say that Facebook takes the mystery out of people.

As a huge movie buff, one of the most important things to me is obviously film. So if I see a cute girl and look her up on Facebook, one of the first things I go to is her favorite movies. I go through the list and then make an immediate reaction as to what I think of her.

It’s like if she enjoys Katherine Heigl movies, then I stereotype her as a boring girl with no imagination. I know that makes me sound like a dick, but don’t we all do a little bit of Facebook judging? Oh, country music — must be a hick. Bad grammar — must be a dumb person.

This judging takes all the mystery out of people because it makes us seem like we have everyone figured out. But we don’t. People are more than a Facebook profile. If we’re initially interested in someone, we should go with our gut, not with what bands they like.

And this goes beyond relationships. It applies to friendships, too. We should be finding out this information about people over coffee or walks or just actual talking. Yeah, it’s convenient to have all this information out to look at, but I feel like it makes you appreciate the other person more when you can slowly uncover these things about them. While you might think that you could never enjoy someone who still listens to New Found Glory at 21, chances are that’s just a miniscule aspect of an amazing person.

I’m not asking you to delete your Facebook or to get rid of your info, but if you see someone who interests you, consider going up and talking to them instead of darting straight to your computer so you can Facebook them. I feel like this is something that we’re all guilty of.

So let’s stop with the security blanket and let’s have actual human interaction again.