Ghosts of Christmas past

What could possibly possess an ex-boyfriend (of a gazillion years ago) to send me a message on Facebook?

“Hi JJ, just wanted to say hi. I bought a condo in ****** and move in in two days! Hope you’re good and have a fun Christmas- Richard”.

Now, we're not talking a recent ex--this is someone i stopped dating 6 years ago and have had no contact with since.

Why the fuck do I need to know he bought a condo?? Seriously. I haven’t talked to the dude in 6 years. And all of a sudden; “Hi!”?? Is this something that is common on Facebook or is it just me? Pretty much every guy I’ve dated in the past 10 years or so has sent me a message out of the blue. The creepy thing is it means that they were specifically searching for you.

Ok, ok, so yeah, I admit, I search exes too (I’m such a hypocrite). The above mentioned Richard? Yeah, I searched him. Which brings me to another weird thing about Facebook. Back when i looked at Richard's profile (before he set it to private), I saw that he had a girlfriend. So, of course, I browsed her profile (I’m horrible). In her photo albums, she had a picture of Richard, with a caption saying something like “There’s my baby! Love you!”. The weird thing is that I took the picture. I felt like a trademark violation had occurred. A photo that I had taken of my (then) boyfriend was now being used by another woman to show-off her (current) boyfriend. I know I don’t have any claims to a photo, and i certainly have no claim to the man (nor do i want to--ewww). It’s just another weird thing about this strange plane of existence called the internet.

Oh—and I should mention--when I search exes? I don’t message them!! I really don't give a rat’s about what they are doing, and i certainly don't have any need to inform them of what i'm up to. I'm likely just being a bored voyeur.

So i really want to know...what DOES possess someone to contact an ex out of the blue, just to say "hi"? Is it just an inherent side-effect of social networking?