I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like “unfollowing” or “hiding” and especially not “unfriending” people on Facebook because I like to know what’s going on in their lives, even if I don’t agree with their politics. I like knowing if their brother is sick or their kids won the spelling bee, so if I “unfollow” or “hide” or even “unfriend” I won’t see that stuff in my feed and I want to, even if we disagree on a lot of political things. As we gear up into election season, it’s really important that I find as many ways to stay connected without getting my feelings hurt. And that’s tricky with Facebook.
Y’all know I’m a bleeding heart, tree hugging liberal. That comes as no surprise to anyone. So, you can trust that my one major complaint with Obama has been some of his military decisions during his presidency. For months I’ve been worried we’re spending too much money on bombing ISIS, and not enough on intelligence gathering and then…after the global attacks over the last weeks – especially in Beirut and Paris – all of my Facebook feed is full of people yelling about Obama not doing enough bombing of ISIS and I’m sitting her so confused because I’ve kept my mouth shut lately about questioning if he’s doing too much bombing (v/s intelligence gathering) and suddenly I feel like we’re all living in different worlds. I’m confused how I can be upset over too much bombing at the exact time someone else is upset over not enough.
[FYI – Here’s a great series of 16 tweets from David Roberts – about this issue if you’ve been confused by the sudden “Why Are We Not Attacking ISIS” message.]
My point is that this week? I’ve been hiding the shit out of “SOURCES”- not people. Here’s a photo of what it looks like using a source I WOULD NEVER HIDE. I LOVE THE OATMEAL. If you see something in your feed you don’t like, click the little arrow next to it to see the option to Hide All From The Oatmeal. (WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT DO BECAUSE THE OATMEAL IS GREAT.)
If someone shares out an article from a source you’re confident you don’t need in your life, hide everything from that source. For me this week it was Breitbart. I try to avoid all self-proclaimed biased sources because I think they’re untrustworthy and they fuel this political dichotomy that exists in this world, so when I saw someone shared out something from Breitbart this week? I just told Facebook to hide everything ever from Breitbart. I have plenty of things I disagree with Democrats on, I’m not blinding myself to other viewpoints, but I do want to hate sources that fuel fear and hatred.
Of course, I’m still seeing basic statuses about how much my friends hate people who hate our President, and even though it hurts my feelings because I’m a sensitive liberal flower, I don’t unfollow or unfriend or even hide the person. I will, however – then use “Hide This Post” choice so at least it won’t show up with all of the comments from my other friends agreeing because then I realize that deep down everyone hates me and I eat all the donuts in all the land. Before I discovered the benefit of the “Hide This Post” – Facebook would assume if all of my friends were commenting on something that I’d want to keep seeing it in my feed. This one time in particular it was something like, “If you still support our Obama, unfriend me now!” and I kept seeing all of my friends agreeing and y’all – I DID NOT UNFRIEND ANY OF THEM. HA! But, now, I can at least “Hide this Post” so I only get my feelings hurt that one time from that one person and then I can work on drinking to forget that moment.
Hiding the Post and Hiding the Source has really helped a lot in my life. I block all sources that upset me and I only see angering statuses once, then the rest of the time it’s kitten videos and life updates. I still stay connected, but I don’t stay angry. It’s not perfect, BUT IT HELPS.
I am always amazed at how vocal people are on Facebook about their “hate” for people / things. I scroll past so many posts and keep telling myself that everyone has their right to an opinion. I do dislike the many MANY “shares” of articles that seem so biased (on both sides). So many times Facebook seems a place to show how far apart everyone is – even friends.
This is a great tip. I really don’t like the idea of removing people from my feed either- even people that are only there because I met them in a class in college and we haven’t spoken since- because the people I surround myself with in real life are either very like minded, or we just don’t discuss politics at all. When I leave all of those differing opinions in my feed, I can continue being aware that I don’t live in a bubble where everyone thinks the way I do.
That said, downright disrespect and ignorance don’t get a second glance from me, so this is a great tip for those times you really can’t unfriend someone but need to maintain some sort of positive opinion of them (certain family members, maybe…)
I definitely needed to read this today. THANK YOU.
I did that with Fox News as soon as I was able to do it. It’s made things a LOT better, though they seem to create more pages to get around that (or someone is ;))
I love this post because yes, I still want to follow my friends but not their politics. A lot of mine are the complete opposite of me when it comes to them, and as long as we don’t talk about politics, we’re all good 😉
I do the unfollow sources all the time, but I finally gave up and completely unfriended several people (high school classmates, not actual friend-friends). It was liberating! One kept spewing such poison I would feel my blood pressure rise every time she posted. We are not actual friends, so unfriending her was FREEING!
I hide posts all the time. Especially from one friend.(classmate) He can be radically conservative, bigoted, obsessed with women and sex, vulgar, stoned, and drunk. But when he writes posts on his philosophy of life he is insightful, kind, and caring. I have considered unfriending him, but then I would miss his take on life, which is wonderful.
Thank you, I’ve really been struggling with this, especially this week. I forgot to exert these options. Hopefully they will help me not grow to hate my family and some of my friends.