Facebook diplomacy: Judiciously keeping your mouth shut

There is a woman who my wife and I are both Facebook friends with. A few years ago, her daughter went to pre-school with my daughter, but we have no connection otherwise and her family moved out of town a year ago.

She lives her whole life on Facebook -- every meal, workout, kids event, etc gets its own post. She basically serves as comedy fodder for my wife and I.

A few weeks ago she posted something like -- great news, if you are reading this, you have made the cut. I've recently decided to defriend all but the most important people in my life. Of course that got nearly 100 likes.

Meanwhile, she has only ever commented on one post of mine 4 years ago and never for my wife. It took everything in me not to write something snarky.

 

One thing I've noticed is how overwhelmingly the number of people who engage in current events discussion are journalists and ex-journalists. Essentially, these seem to be the people far most likely to post about matters bigger than themselves. Which of course makes sense. I have hidden posts from even some of my best and brightest non-industry friends because they've hinted annoyance at my "political posts." People don't distinguish between partisan ranting and informed, nuanced commentary. They simply don't want to hear it from their friends. Not in that medium, at least.

 

Seems like a lot of you think Facebook would be awesome if no one posted anything

 

As annoying as the workout stuff can be, I get that it helps some people stay motivated to work out. It's a lot harder to skip a day when people will know.

 

See, all three places I worked had (very lightly enforced) rules that employees should avoid opinionated political discussion on social media.

Also, I've hid everyone, including my mother, who I've ever seen utter a word about politics on my newsfeed. I'll have more dog and food photos, please.

 

Yeah, this. No real middle ground that I can find. Half of my facebook "friends" (usually younger and involved in academia) post politics 24/7 like they were getting paid to do it. The other half want NOTHING to do with any of it, even if it's the day before an election.

 

Have you honestly hidden people who discuss politics? Even civilly and articulately?

As far as the company policies go, a lot of the people who engage are former journalists. Some are stringers. But at least a few of them are currently working journalists, some at pretty sizeable shops.

 

Dick Whitman, consider the source. More than half of my Facebook friends have been hidden. And I regularly prune my friends list. When I care to look into what a friend is doing, I can go to his or her page.

 

Oh, I wasn't criticizing you for it. That was a genuine inquiry into whether you were joking or not.

 

I was. A big difference is what we consider intelligent political discourse. I have no respect for the system but stay well-informed enough to point out the hypocrisy and injustice and bullshit on both sides (and that's not bragging; it's not a difficult accomplishment). I have no patience for anyone who doesn't realize we're fundamentally fucked and no desire to dwell on that, either.

So why would I want to see my college buddies rambling on about President Obama (good or bad) on an inherently stupid platform built more for tits and immediate peer approval than anything else?

 

Is the platform built for that any more than, say, the platform that is the bar stool? But politics are discussed there, too. As are tits. It's a big tent.

 

I meant it literally. That was the purpose of Facebook.