Facebook rant!

I have fun with facebook and like to put an update every couple days or so.  Like Cadenza, sometimes my old friends back home make positive comments and like to see what I'm up to.  I find it really useful and fun (as long as I limit my time online).  I did have a couple friends that I've hidden (mostly old high school / college people who I haven't been in touch with for ages before facebook) because I found their constant updates (a few a day!) about their children, etc annoying, so if anyone thinks I'm annoying they can just hide me.

The thing about hiding people or deleting them for me is...well, they are not ALWAYS annoying. Most of the post I really enjoy and I like seeing the updates and photos. I comment on them and we have a laugh. It's just the random updates every now and again that truly get on my nerves. Hell, I bet even I can annoying the hell out of people on my friends list.  I would never delete or block them unless I truly could not stand it anymore. So far I have only had to do that once.

The thing about hiding people or deleting them for me is...well, they are not ALWAYS annoying.

I know what you mean.  But when they are *mostly* annoying, I've hidden them so it gives other people more of a chance of coming up on my news feed.  I have deleted people and I don't feel bad about it at all.  I've deleted those whom I suspect friended me out of pure curiosity (some being old high school friends) and they never comment on any of my posts or respond to my positive comments to them, so I felt like there was no relationship there at all, I felt ignored, so I deleted them.

One of my old work colleagues is getting annoying with her status updates at the moment. A little background: she's 21, but I started working with her when she was 16 and she's gone through lots of not knowing what to do with her life (she started FE college, then dropped out after a year) and a couple of bad relationships (including a body builder 10 years older than her who didn't treat her very well and an engagement to a guy who was barely out of his teens) and now she's broken off the engagement (he lied to her) and is feeling lonely and sorry for herself.

Which leads to her facebook status... which is constantly telling us how she just wants to be noticed, how she misses him, how she's going to snuggle up in bed and cry, how she wants to be a model, how she wants to wake up tomorrow and be a better 'me' etc. etc.

This morning I noticed that she was taking up a lot of my newsfeed so I had a look at her wall and counted that she's changed her status 20 times in the last 24 hours! As much as I like her, I think I'm going to have to put her on ignore for a bit .

If I don't want to look at lots of pictures or read certain posts, I don't.  I enjoy the connection to my friends and family back home along with the ability FB gives me to stay in touch with them easily.  I'm the kind of person who likes keeping up with old friends, so FB has been perfect for that.

Me too!!
I've deleted a few people, those who never post anything or those who post things that are completely outside of my interests or beliefs.  I'm sure they don't miss me or even notice I'm gone.   

I just put the 'ignore updates' feature thingy on the people that have aggravating updates...but that I still want to be able to get in touch with at any given time.

I've deleted a few people who were too over the top because even after I put the ignore thing on them, they would comment on my updates with something stupid.

I can be one of those people who posts pointless updates but part of the reason is because FB is really the only way I stay in touch with friends and family back home (except my mom which I talk to once a week...and usually forget to tell her quite a few things that happened that week).  My dad yelled at me for not updated more because he's too lazy to call me and talk on the phone to see what's going on in my life.  And my mom got mad because I didn't tell her a seemingly mundane and boring thing that was for some reason important to her. 

But...I don't post every 5 minutes...sometimes it's twice a day and sometimes I go for four or five days with nothing.  I don't do things like 'I'm hungry' then, 'Now I'm eating', then 'I just finished eating', etc.  I figure if people think my updates are annoying they can delete me or choose that ignore feature.

I had to deletethis one person on facebook. he wasnt a friend,but a customer.

Every single post I made on facebook,he ALWAYS made a comment, and a majority of his comments had nothing to do with my post. He also posts every day about how unfair it is that benefits are being cut and whined about it
. I had to delete him cause he just did my head in

The thing that I can't stand right now is people who have an application on their phone that posts their current location to Facebook and Twitter. I don't care that you're at the Farmer's Market. I don't care that you're at the grocery store. I don't care that you're at the gym. Frankly, I find it a little stalkery and I'd rather people NOT know where I am at any given time!

It is a bit creepy, but a friend told me this app (I think it's called FourSquare) rewards you for being a frequent customer. For example, you can get coupons or other perks for checking in a lot. So he knows a woman who gets to go to the front of the line (no waiting) at Whole Foods in Atlanta because apparently she shops there every day.

Let's not comment on how weird that is... it was just his example.

I enjoy the connection to my friends and family back home along with the ability FB gives me to stay in touch with them easily.  I'm the kind of person who likes keeping up with old friends, so FB has been perfect for that.

This is me.  I have some old friends who almost never contacted me until I added them on Facebook (and I can't pretend I wrote them all that often either), so it's nice for me to read what they're doing.

It is a bit creepy, but a friend told me this app (I think it's called FourSquare) rewards you for being a frequent customer. For example, you can get coupons or other perks for checking in a lot. So he knows a woman who gets to go to the front of the line (no waiting) at Whole Foods in Atlanta because apparently she shops there every day.

Let's not comment on how weird that is... it was just his example.

Yup, you get discounts at Starbucks etc. But again, it's how people use the ap, the idea is not to tweet your locations constantly like everywhere you are the whole time, so like I might push up to FB "hey I'm in x , buying wigs for Halloween!" or "I'm at Y having some drinks, come join us" or "I just landed in Kabul airport!". I think they can be quite cool,

If you're posting your location constantly,  I'm at home, I'm at the grocery store, I arrived at work, I went out for lunch, I'm in traffic,  I'm on my way home, I'm at home, i'm going out for ice-cream, I'm home again, you're an attention seeker and a bit weird

Yes CB. I don't mind of their location is part of a regular status update, but it's really annoying when it's just the place.

Balmerhon, that makes perfect sense as to why I'm always finding how who is at Wegman's! They probably do the same perks as Whole Foods!

Sista, Eastside - totally agree it is nice to have the power to ignore or hide them. But beware of the maniacal fb posting colleague whom you have opted to 'ignore' who looks at you one day and says "I thought I friended you but I don't see your posts"  Then you're stuck back in the cycle.

Question for the group as UK BF and I were discussing the topic recently. He seemed rather surprised that attorneys, future employers, etc. are using fb to find proverbial mud to sling.  That is certainly the case in the UK right? Please tell me that's him being clueless (vs. it not being as common in the UK).

alilbabba, I have had that happen before! When they say they didn't see my updates, but more often it's them asking me, "did you see my post about, blah, blah..." I just say "hmm, I wonder what's going on with facebook, that's weird, I didn't see it" and leave it at that.

I don't know how common it is for employers to check facebook, but it's definitely something I have heard of too. I don't really think it's that bad of an idea.

So, if I have hidden someone that means I can't see their updates in my newsfeed anymore.  I didn't know that meant that they couldn't see my updates.  Is this what you are saying?

The #1 thing that annoys me about Facebook (at least, at the moment) is the kids!  I mean the ones who are obviously under 13, and even  a lot of those who are around middle-school aged.

My little sister has a profile.  She's 11!  I about had a heart attack when she sent me a friend request!  I phoned my dad straight away and told him he should make her delete it, because she was too young according to the site rules, and also because there's a lot of content on there that just isn't age-appropriate-  much of it coming from a particular 'party girl' cousin of ours.  And finally, I told him, there's the whole security issue.  Not only does it make it easier for her to be targeted and bullied, but there's the risk of her posting personal info.

"Well, her mother told her she could have one, so that she could keep in touch with [other sister who had just left home].  I think it's stupid, but nobody listens to me."

So, I've been trying to kind of keep an eye on things, so that if it does appear that she's being bullied or anything, I can let someone know.  And I had a talk with her about how important it is to keep personal info out of public view, and keep her passwords safe and everything.  Then yesterday...

Friend:  OMG I might be getting a cell phone today!
Sister (in comments): cool my number is [insert her mobile number for the whole freakin' world to see].

Now, maybe I'm overprotective, or prudish, or just downright paranoid and fun-hating... but ack!  That's exactly why she shouldn't have a Facebook page!  (Or possibly a mobile, for that matter... but that's another issue.)