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    Before launching into a tirade as I always do when someone mentions this subject, I just want to throw in a disclaimer. Things that make absolutely no sense at all annoy me and cause spontaneous outbursts of outrage like the following.
    Okay, so, here we go. I don't want to be a ludicrously old-fashioned curmudgeon who raves about the state of youth and everything, but I have to sound off on an unsavory trend enabled by Facebook. Don't get me wrong, I love Facebook as much as the next person and I especially love commenting on my friends' embarrassing pictures. But there is a limit to how embarrassing (and incriminating) a picture you can post and, apparently, a host of underage Facebook users don't know where that line is exactly, possibly because they're disoriented by the alcohol they took pictures of themselves consuming.
    Because, seriously, people do this. I know, you're thinking, "How dense would you have to be to take pictures of yourself doing something blatantly illegal and then post those pictures in the public domain?" Despite the obvious drawbacks to such an idea, I keep seeing it. The first time I saw someone post incriminating pictures of that nature, the "friend" was a science fair winner and future engineer from a prestigious private school. I'm not talking about a goofy-smiled kid holding an opaque cup with unknown contents. I'm talking about dozens of empty Budweiser bottles and six kids asleep on the same sagging sofa. All I could think was, "Are you kidding me?"
    Sorry, I don't mean to sound preachy. It's really none of my business what you do with plastic cups and ping pong balls in your basement, but there are a few rational reasons why posting pictures of yourself dancing around a bottle of Bailey's isn't the greatest idea ever.
    1) Just because you think your account is private, doesn't mean you have complete control over who sees it. You can always get at random people's pictures by linking through another friend's profile or some other backwards way of redirecting online traffic. If there is anyone anywhere in the world that you do not want to see your pictures, then you probably just shouldn't post them in the first place.
    2) It has a sort of "trying too hard" feel about it. I know, that sounds mean, but why do you really want people to see pictures of you drinking? What are you trying to prove and to whom are you trying to prove it?
    3) Anything you say, do, or post pictures of yourself doing, can and will be used against you. I mean, really, haven't you seen "Gossip Girl?” (That was a joke…sort of…)
    4) When I made my Facebook account, the default was set to give access to my profile to anyone in my network, which is fine in high school. But when you get to college, some of the professors have Facebook accounts too (creepy but true) and they belong to the same networks as the students. The last thing anyone needs is for a college professor to stumble across drunken pics from high school.
    5) This is the biggest, scariest reason why you should never post incriminating photos of yourself on Facebook. When I started my college search, I read an article about job recruiters who turned to Facebook for more exciting dish on potential employees. Basically, employers would get newbies to join the company network, scope out their pictures and profiles, and then fire them if their Facebook accounts revealed unsavory conduct. Even college admissions officers did it. It's a little bit "Big Brother" and more than a little bit creepy that people are turning a fun socializing website into a spontaneous résumé, but you don't want to be the one caught online with your hand in the cookie jar or, you know, the keg.
Moral of the story? Discretion is the better part of valor.

Khan, the North Attleborough High School class of 2008 validictorian, is a National Honor Society member and regular Free Press contributor.