That kid who popped you with rubber bands in fourth grade, now the avid Glenn Beck fan, normally abides peacefully, post by post, with your professor of feminist theory.

Everybody’s a friend on Facebook.

But opinion on perhaps the most politically charged issue since social media began – the healthcare bill – is bleeding into sites normally reserved for photos of babies and Farmville updates.

Not everyone is happy about that.

“I don’t think Facebook is the place for politics,” says David Aman of Plant City. “It’s more of a friendship thing. It’s too easy to be misunderstood.”

Generations raised never to speak about religion and politics in polite company are finding such taboo topics mixed in with run-of-the-mill personal updates.

Conservatives may find it offensive when they are asked to join a new Facebook group to send talk show pundit Rush Limbaugh to Costa Rica, where he facetiously said he’d move if the controversial bill passed. Liberals bristle when friends blast “Obamacare.”

Kelli Burns, an assistant professor of mass communications at the University of South Florida and an expert on social media, says she first began seeing the creep of politics into social sites during the last presidential election.

But the rabid debate online over the House-approved healthcare bill is the strongest sign yet that social media is taking a turn for the political.

People, as usual, are searching for validation, says Burns, author of “Celeb 2.0: How Social Media Foster Our Fascination with Popular Culture.”

“If people like you comment on your posts, you have worth,” she says. “People are willing to risk criticism to find that.”

Lorraine Margeson of St. Petersburg is a strong supporter of the healthcare bill and isn’t afraid to let her Facebook friends know it.

“I talk politics all the time,” she says. “I don’t have problems at all with civility, as folks know better than to go there with me. I don’t talk politics about anything that I am not thoroughly familiar with, and I can counter an argument with indisputable facts. I am never rude.”

Jennifer Danison, who is majoring in architecture at USF, says she enjoys reading a lively debate on Facebook, as long as everyone remains civil and ready to argue their sides with intelligence.

“A lot of my peers have touched on the bill, and I accept their views,” says Danison, whose family is more conservative than her friends. “That’s the point of social networking – sharing your beliefs and what you stand for.”

She also says she learns from the discussions.

“I don’t keep up with politics or watch the news, so if my friends are talking about something on Facebook, I’ll go look it up.”

The downside, says Burns, is that some people may believe they’ve fulfilled their civic duty if they comment online.

“You don’t have to go to too much trouble,” she says. “But will they then take the next step and contact their senators? So I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”

If someone is too offensive, Facebook provides remedies. By clicking on the “hide” icon to the right of a post, incoming messages can be blocked. And if a Facebook friend is becoming foe, there’s always the option to block that person altogether.

Fun “How the World Works” item in Salon on how the Twittersphere went berserk with CBO scores yesterday. Andrew Leonard writes:

You know you are living in a strange universe when the keyword “CBO” — the abbreviation for Congressional Budget Office — becomes so popular on Twitter that sleazy porn outfits like AdultFriendFinder incorporate the acronym into their tweet spam to drum up business. Call me squeamish, but I find it a little off-putting to have geeky arguments about the budgetary implications of new health care legislation interrupted by nonsense tweets attached to pictures of genitalia in compromising positions. It’s yucky.

There were also hundreds of tweets and countertweets (or counterfactual tweets?) when House Republican Mike Pence asserted via Twitter that the CBO was wrong about Medicare costs ever since the beginning. The problem: there was no CBO when Medicare had its beginning (in 1965). Who knew that America would have so many comedians familiar with the CBO. (Example: @samseder CBO completely underestimated cost of Columbus journey to America.)

Leonard concluded on a more serious note: “The battle over health care reform has fully penetrated the consciousness of the United States, whether expressed out on the street or in the voting booth or via a Twitter riff. History is being made, and we know it.”