You know how we all have Facebook friends, and then we have Facebook "friends." The people that you worked with, or went to school with, and you were never really friends but you were in the same club or on the same committee so when they sent you a friend request you kind of felt like you had to accept. And it's not like you didn't like them or anything, but it didn't take very long to realize that you really had nothing in common, and you didn't care about any of the stuff they were posting. You couldn't unfriend them, because that would be awkward, so you just hid them from your news feed. Yes, I'm talking about those "friends."
The other day I was out running some errands with the kids, and I ran into one of these "friends" at, of all places, the mall food court. (One of those places where you have no escape, so you're kind of obligated to talk to anyone who stops at your table.) So we had the "long time no see, what have you been up to?" conversation.
At one point, she mentioned her son, to which my first thought was 'oh, I didn't know she had a son.' (Of course I hadn't seen her in several years, so that made sense.) I almost spoke that thought aloud, but fortunately for once my brain decided to work a little bit faster than my mouth, and pointed out to me that she had probably mentioned it a time or two on Facebook. ('Oh, yeah! We're Facebook friends.') Ooops. That would have been awkward!
It's not just me, right?
Ha! I totally get this! I have so many people's posts blocked out of my "consideration" for their feelings. I should really be focusing on why I feel like I have to have those people as "friends." Is their world really going to end if I unfreind them?
ReplyDeleteYeah, we could totally start a much larger discussion of why we feel that we have to accept friend requests. :)
DeleteI suppose for me it comes down to it being "nicer" and less confrontational if I just accept and then hide them if I don't want to see their stuff. I don't know if it's necessarily the right thing to do, but I think a lot of us do it.
Haha...I'm TOTALLY with you on this one. I had a "friend" (that I haven't seen in 10+ years) who added me on FB and then promptly inundated my newsfeed with all this partisan political crap. I don't mind anyone's opinion, but it was just reposting random articles and they were all waaaay of center. There was no room for discussion...just a "post-bomb" that made it clear what her idiology was. I hid her quickly...just to free up my newsfeed.
ReplyDeleteDon't plan on ever seeing her since she's in another state entirely, but I can relate to this post. :)
Yep - I have some of those too. The funny thing is that some of them are *actual* friends, so I do want to see them in my feed; I just have to skim over all the "junk" that I don't want to see.
DeleteThanks for commenting. Glad to hear it's not just me. :)
I have some of those 'friends' too. I went through a culling a little while ago though so got rid of most of them.
ReplyDeleteI did that a while ago to. I had a lot of "friends" from my gaming days (the ones where you become friends just so you can join each others' mafias, or farms, or whatever.) It's good to clean house now and then.
DeleteI understand what you mean we all move on and grow in different ways. glad you didn't have a too awkward moment.
ReplyDeleteThanks. :)
DeleteHaha! I've had this happen before. No worries. It happens to all of us. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks. Glad it's not just me. :)
DeleteNot just you at all. And here's something facebook related: my brother-in-law feels that fb should be for people you really don't see very often, to use as a way to stay in touch, so it took him a really long time to add family to his friend list. Even though he finally gave in, he still periodically blocks my sister, until she figures it out again and gives him some good-natured grief. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat's funny. It's interesting how different people have different ideas about what Facebook "should" be used for. I know people that block their family, and people that won't accept friend requests from anybody at work, and stuff like that. Whatever works for them, I suppose. :)
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