Prudie's advice is ridiculous. This guy's a jerk.
Q. Shattered Dreams: There is this girl I have been interested in. I'm sure we will get along great when we finally get together. Anyway, I keep track of her through Facebook, and recently she changed some settings that allowed me to see a bunch of her pictures. Needless to say, I was shocked. From what I can tell, she has had THREE boyfriends in the past two years. She also has lots of pictures of her in somewhat compromising positions with other girls, and also lots of pictures with alcohol. I was expecting her to be a nice clean girl, but obviously now I feel I have to let her go. Is this a normal occurrence in the young adult dating world? Or should I continue to keep trying to find the right one?A: The object of your desire sounds as if she's the object of many people's desire, and the beauty of Facebook is that everyone can now see documentary evidence of such things. It's obviously dumb to post compromising photos of oneself on Facebook. But you should also know that many people use Facebook to goof around with their sexual image and relationship settings. You may be turned off by her displays, but you also sound rather a prig when you say you desire "a nice clean girl." Nonetheless, it's clear that your style and this girl's don't mesh. So when using Facebook as a filter, look for someone who understands the wisdom of being more circumspect.Update, Feb. 7, 2011, 4:20 p.m.: I agree with readers who point out that I overlooked the Travis Bickle aspect of the this question, and it's likely the young woman in question doesn't even know him. He's a creep! However, I remain concerned that young people in particular are displaying for the world a version of themselves, let's say "sexy party girl," that can have unanticipated consequences, even if they think they've got their page contained. It's great to be young and sexy—but does everyone have to know?