You Can Unfriend Me, Please
Seven Million people stopped using Facebook in May. I know why. They all had the same friend I have(among others, this one just aggravated me today). He was a great guy in high school (or my first job thirty years ago) and it was GREAT to hear from him on Facebook when I first signed up, but everything I wanted to know about his current life I learned in the first three status updates and wall posts back and forth.
Now, I know the name of every friend he ever knew, their kids names, what they look like, who their friends are, when they saw Papa and Meemee last and when they, well, did anything. I’ve seen the photos and videos for every family, business and casual outing or get together for the past two years and frankly, I am getting tired of scrolling past them EVERY day. SOOOOO, you ask, why don’t you unfriend him?
I shouldn’t have to. There should be, hmmmmm, etiquette. It’s a personal relationship, but it is not the same for every relationship on your list. If you are going to use Facebook to communicate every detail of your daily existence that is only interesting to your closest family and, maybe, godparents, then learn how to send it to just them. You can do it, it’s right there in the share box, you can even default to it. Then if you have an occasional big event or universally interesting thing, share it with the rest of us, daily even, twice daily, just not minute by minute.
My updates default to ten people, ten. My wife, my mom, my kids, their spouses. My brothers and sisters don’t even suffer through the updates I might send on a daily basis to my family. They don’t care when my meeting tonight is, or when it’s over, or where I am right now. If it’s interesting enough to share with everyone, I click the share button and click Everyone. Easy,Peasy. Learn how, Please.
Otherwise, unfriend me, please. Don’t make me feel like the bad guy. Don’t make me feel like I should care about all your stuff, or that I should perhaps be a better friend. Do you remember what I look like? Don’t look at the picture, that’s cheating.
What do you think?
