Wearing a minskirt on Facebook

As a Facebook virgin, I was stunned at the personal information and intimacies that my friends in their 20s were happy to share - mobile phone numbers pasted on pages that friends of friends could see, comments on who thought who looked hot in what photo...

"Oooh, do be careful darlings," I wanted to cluck having cautiously set up my own account so no one else could see the conversations I was having.

I came across a support group for all the ladies who had loved and lost to a certain guy within their company dubbed the "love-machine."

The "love-machine" had his own account, which I could access despite not being his friend, in which he gave the same answer for his favourite activities, interests, quotes - "bom chicka wah wah."

I've no doubt that was funny and good-hearted within its context, but times change and contexts change and I find the lack of caution makes me gasp.

What message does that put out to a future employer? Is he not worried he might put a potential girl-friend off? Is it worth the risk?

(I'm feeling protective, like I said, which is why I haven't named this person or his company. But I could do and you could all have a look, which is precisely my point.)

It seems to me that there's an analogy between that happy display of affection, phone numbers and "bom chicka wah wah" and the flashing of flesh we enjoy when we are younger.

As we get older we feel the need to cover up, both literally and metaphorically, and that is generally perceived as a negative thing.

Yet I feel little nostalgia for the days when I would totter around in a tiny piece of black lycra and didn't care who could overhear my personal conversations.

I've gained something that I don't quite have the words for, probably because it is little celebrated.

Is it dignity? Is it containment? Is it a less exploratory and more knowing sense of self? I'm not quite sure, but whatever it is, I'm enjoying it. It is well worth getting older for.