Sick of all the negativity spewing from your facebook news-feed? Let me guess, a few facebook "friends" are responsible for posting memes and statements that slam the opposing side to theirs. Negativity.Sidebar: Studies show that when you do that, all you do is push the opposition further away. People who spew putrescence like that in the hopes of swaying people to their view, or somehow thinking this shows they are "right" only shut down open dialogue. Think about that.
Sometimes it may come from someone who you know in real life is actually nice, kind, light-hearted - funny, even! But they choose to use their facebook page to force their volatile views that would never be brought up in dinner-table conversation with friends.
They are your friend.
You don't want to "un-friend" them.
Facebook allows for you to "unfollow" that person.
This is a beautiful tool that I have been using a lot lately. Actually, right now, because I can't afford to be dragged down into the putrid pool of excrement that is every divisive issue, I unfollow as soon as someone shows they're closed-off to open discussion. Here's how:
See a post demonstrating such negativity? Hover your mouse over that person's name.
If you are friends, there should be three tabs:
"friends" "following" "message"
 |
| (image: mytechnews.net) |
Click it.
Done! See how easy that was?
You may need to also adjust your notification settings. I had set my notifications to always notify me when people in my "close friends" list posted. Some of these people are recent offenders, so I unfollowed them, but still received notifications due to their placement on this list. I had to change my notifications to no longer see all my "close friends". We'll see how that works, but so far, my facebook is a much more friendly and peaceful place!
Good luck, friends!
Some of the memes are just out of line. That said, I think it helps to accept if whoever you are for loses. We live in a democracy where the majority of who votes will have a big affect on how the country goes.
ReplyDeleteI'm at the point I just laugh. But blocking is a good idea.
I'm not just talking about the election, every violent attack in the world has people spouting their views full of vitriol! It's just crazy.
DeleteThat's why I posted this. "Blocking" is something else, on facebook. If you block someone, they cannot see anything you post - even a comment on someone else's page, and you cannot see anything they post. Unfollowing is a way that, you can still pop over to check out their wall if you want to see what's going on, but they won't show up in your notifications. It's a friendly way to shut people out without them knowing.
I have done this too! I also un-friended quite a few. And stoppedfollowing all national news. I like Facebook much better now!!
ReplyDeleteI make a point to keep my friend list on fb below 200. I think only 3 are there who I've not personally met.
DeleteI do this as well. I tell people these instructions all the time, but they never listen.
ReplyDeleteI've even gone as far as unfollowing people who constantly bash my sports teams. I don't mind ribbing about them, but some people hate other teams more than they like theirs.
I'm amazed at how much more peaceful my facebook page is now!
DeleteI've had to hide several people from my newsfeed too, it's crazy how frustrated a single bigoted or unresearched repost can make me! But I've also found it's more effective to just stay off Facebook more and more lately. It's such a massive time suck - my sister's started setting a ten minute timer and then logging off immediately. It's too easy to get sucked in for longer...
ReplyDeleteSince unfollowing the negative-nancies and politicos, my newsfeed is mostly a fitness group I joined. Very positive and motivating!
DeleteI check in the morning (gotta get my fitness challenge for the day!) and usually late afternoon or in the evening. But yes, a huge time-suck.