Facebook was a lot nicer, before your whole family showed up on it

[La Lioness Priyanka]

my aunts and uncles and distant aunts and uncles and who knows whom else? my mother next? gah

additionally, thanks to facebook i just found out that a distant uncle who molested me in childhood is now dead & his wife is a right wing christian nut. both things that i didnt know yesterday, & were happy not knowing.

ugh.

PS: please dont give me such advice such as "get off facebook" for many reasons, some of which are related to my community organizing and political work, i cant and wont.

just wanted to vent.

[Mojambo]

1. Yeah, you really have to be careful who you accept as friend.

I've cut out quite a few family members myself.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. the thing is. i cant really reject my family either.

argh.

[cbdo2007]

2. I predicted the end of Facebook about 18 months ago when my Grandma befriended me

on there.

Their growth definitely has slowed and soon they'll be more like Myspace where just the hardcore people will use it, but it's fun to catch up with everyone I've every known occasionally.

[Lex]

7. I'm surprised how few know how to use the Privacy settings. nt

[cbdo2007]

9. What do the privacy settings have to do with it? It's more about the principle

of something being cool until our parents start doing it. I don't mind being friends with my grandma on there but Facebook has certainly lost a lot of it's appeal since then.

[Lex]

11. Sounds like a kid problem to me. nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. i have great privacy settings on fb.

thats not really the problem

[Lex]

12. Oh. Okay then. I have family on FB and don't see them & they can't see me

because of privacy settings on my end, so they don't bother me or I them.

[caitxrawks]

4. bluh i know how it feels

I "came out" as an agnostic atheist a few days ago, and my best childhood friend (we've known each other for 12 years) messaged me and was like "I can't talk to you anymore because you're not a Christian. I have to delete you, bye."

OMGWTFBBQ.

I'm still aching over that, in case you haven't noticed. (Which I'm sure you did.)

My mom is also a crazy ass Christian, and she's constantly hounding me over my lack of religion. It just kills me, gah! It makes me want to go back to Myspace. (Well, almost.)

[rcrush]

5. Maybe its just me.

But I dont care how my family feels if I feel the need to kick them off Facebook. I'll let them know it too that they were just pissing me off and I couldn't stand it anymore.


I'm probably not the best example though. I cant help but fight with my family.

[Lex]

6. It's easy to put all those people in Limited status so they can't see your updates

or photos or even post on your wall. You can make it so it looks like you never use Facebook from what they are able to see.

And, you can hide them from your feed so you don't have to see their updates and pics either.

Friend 'em if they want, then put them in your Limited list. Takes 2 seconds.

[bigwillq]

8. I'm cool with all the family

that's on facebook. Just don't accept them if you don't really want to. No one says you have to.

[Dangerously Amused]

13. What Lex said.

They won't know if you lock them out, either. It will look like you just stopped using facebook as often as you used to.

[Bennyboy]

14. I don't let my family on my site. (older family.. my kids are cool)

I have had a ll of my cousins try to befriend me and I am just not going for that. I love em and all, but I really don't want them to see some of the stuff I post or the subjects.

[ipfilter]

15. Wait until they build up their

friends list and then delete them. Chances are they won't even notice.

[arcadian]

16. I feel the same

I have an inlaw who has no problem telling me how my leftist ideas are destroying the country, but in the name of keeping peace in the family I esentially can't respond or it will start a big rift. I'm just going to hide them. I'm sure months down the road the will ask me why I hid them and get all pissed off.

[Lex]

20. how would they know you hid them unless you tell them? nt

[arcadian]

21. I don't know, but they found out.

I think I hid them by defriending them. :D

[EndersDame]

17. Make a seperate family account

and dont check it!

[insanity]

18. I agree

I miss the facebook that was for college students and college students only. I've adjusted my privacy settings and all, but I don't like what has happened to the website since its opened up the doors.

[Zomby Woof]

19. I for one want you to stay on FB

I value your presence on there, and appreciate your political/activist updates. So there. :P

Unfortunately, we all seem to have wingnut relatives. I have them on a list which keeps them from seeing my posts and pics.

[Odin2005]

22. Good riddance to the evil uncle.

Keeping in touch with all the relatives is what I LIKE about Facebook.

[Deep13]

23. I'm going to make my FB page under my name "sterile" ...

...to appear professional and use it to keep in touch with high school acquaintances, relatives and business connections. I've made a new one under a pseudonym for friends so I can say what I really thing.

[BreweryYardRat]

24. Amen.

It went from "college students networking" to "everyone in the goddamn world networking."