I am really enjoying being back on Facebook. I love the rekindling of relationships that mean something to me, yet need Facebook to stay alive. (That’s a thing, and I’m not going to agonize over its shortcomings.) I love the supercharging it gives my closest relationships. And, I love the practicalities of being plugged back in closely to Rocket City Mom, Rocket City Bloggers, and so forth.
What I really love is my decision to stay apolitical, or very close to it, on Facebook. Because since I wrote this post, it’s gotten much worse. Touched on it in current context here, really before I really got a good taste of it.
A good taste of it is unpleasant. This week I have seen multiple, otherwise apparently reasonable people say “if you support >insert candidate name here<, then unfriend me now.”
That’s where we really are.
People, we can’t be there and make it as a civilized society.
Much of the time, those with whom I most vociferously disagree want a society that looks very much like the society I want. We simply disagree on the respective efficacies of the approaches to get there.
We must recognize one another as thinking, reasonable people who have reached different conclusions. We must dissect the forces that have influenced our respective concludings.
Most critically, we must decide once and for all whether it’s more important that we work together for solutions, or that we score nasty little points.
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One of the less talked about features of Facebook is it’s really really good at automatically curating the news feed. Stay with me for a second… I know, that sounds silly. Most people will say “there’s so much crap on my news feed!!!” But that’s because you haven’t told Facebook what you do and don’t want to see.
When you look at a post on facebook, you’ll notice on the top right corner of each post is a pale “V”. If you click that, the first few options will be various filtering options. There’s usually a “Hide post” and “Unfollow “. If the post contains a link to some 3rd party site buzzfeedor a facebook group page, you’ll also have the option to “Hide posts from “. Once you choose the appropriate choice, I believe it even asks you a few quick questions about why you want to hide it, and in some cases gives you the option to never see more posts like it.
I’d know for sure what the options are, but I’ve done it already on my feed, so I actually can’t find something I’m willing to hide after hunting through my feed for 5 minutes.
I’d say spend a few minutes each day for a week doing this and your feed will become tremendously more likable.
Ooops… lost some of my stuff b/c I wrapped things in > and <
Interesting. I don’t think I’m particularly displeased with my feed, though, really. I was just more commenting on what sorts of things have apparently become acceptable to say. I would never litmus-test a friend solely on his/her support of a political candidate.