The reason I'm seeing each of these photos is that one or another of my Facebook friends (who actually knows the people in the photo) clicked the "like" button on it, and Facebook, in its infinite quest to link us all together, has decided that each of us needs to know what our friends "like." Against my will--and probably yours--if you're my Facebook friend, my nose is all up in your business.
I'm not talking about status posts that friends wrote or photos they posted. I want to see those. Those are the reason I signed up for Facebook in the first place. Nor am I speaking of things friends decided to "share." If it meant enough to them that they wanted to call attention to it, then, by golly, I'll give it a look. I just don't want to have to search through a page full of random posts my friends have "liked" in order to find the things they intended for me to see.
Facebook shows those "liked" posts anyway. There is currently no way to opt out of seeing all the "likes" while leaving the status posts and "shares" intact.
Why is this a problem? Well, for example, one friend really likes cat pictures. I don't mind one or two cat pictures, but a news feed full of them is way too many. A male friend "likes" photos of swimsuit models, so those show up in my news feed, too, even though swimsuit models are definitely not my thing. Some of my friends are talented artists and craftspeople, and I enjoy seeing photos of their work. Those friends, of course, "like" the images that their friends who share the same interests post of their own work, so I see those photos, too. Another friend (bless her heart) recently experienced a betrayal. When she sees a pre-made graphic or slogan related in any way to broken trust, it resonates with her, she clicks the "like" button, and voila! There it is on my news feed. Sometimes there's a long string of slogans and images on that topic, and, frankly, that's kind of a bummer. All those "liked" posts add up, and it takes a lot of time to filter through them. But wasted time isn't the biggest problem. It's the photos of "friends of friends" that bother me most. I feel as if I'm invading people's privacy when I see those pictures, yet there isn't a doggone thing I can do about it.
The flip side of this hasn't escaped me: I realize that posts I've "liked" (mostly because I really did like them but occasionally just to be polite) must have contributed to the clutter on my friends' news feeds, too. I sincerely apologize for that, but this time the buck stops with Facebook.
Google + is generally better but even it assumes that if you have a post about dogs then you want to see others with whom you have no connection. Facebook is slowly killing itself.
ReplyDeleteBob, Facebook is slowly killing me, too. Are you suggesting it's a case of murder/suicide?
DeleteI have never "understood" Facebook. My husband uses it, and he, like you, has tons of stuff from strangers. Sometimes he will show me something, and I'll ask who sent it, He doesn't know. I still don't get it.
ReplyDeleteLucylocket, it's a great way to touch base with friends and family, but that isn't as easy as it's purported to be. All the unsolicited posts--not to mention all the ads--make me feel as if I'm standing in the middle of a big cocktail party where snatches of other people's conversations are coming at me from all sides and I can't concentrate on what any one individual is trying to tell me. If I were at such a party, I would leave early, as I often do on Facebook.
DeleteIf you start a "movement" against this type of stuff from Facebook I'll sign up immediately. The other pet peeve I have is the "similar to" sites that follow anything I mark with a "like." One of my daughter has left FB because of the mound of stuff she is bombarded with. I'm thinking about it; however, I have very few friends so it isn't as much of an inconvenience for me.
ReplyDeleteRuth, I don't have a lot of Facebook friends either. I've often wondered how people with lots of FB friends keep from going crazy. As it is, sometimes I stay away for days at a time.
DeleteWow, I didn't know you saw all my "likes." I must have something checked in settings that keeps that from happening to me, but don't ask me what. I "like" posts sometimes just to be supportive of the person who posted it and though it was just between us two. Sorry if I have annoyed you; it's unintentional.
ReplyDeleteOh, Annette, you've never done anything to annoy me in all the years I've known you. Seriously. You and everybody else should keep on "liking" everything you want to. It's Facebook that annoys me because this is a known issue that they've chosen to ignore. I've searched the web for a way to change my settings so that I don't see all the likes (I'm sure I don't really see ALL of them), and the discussions about it always end up the same way: it can't be done through Facebook settings. I have learned that there are one or two third-party, add-on apps that have a fix for it. I normally check FB on my desktop computer. If you're usually on your iPad or smartphone, maybe there's some kind of filter on there that weeds them out.
DeleteAlso, I've come to believe that if I'm seeing an unknown person's wedding or vacation photo (because a friend "liked" it), that unknown person's privacy settings must not limit their posts to friends only.
This is definitely a first-world problem, not at all important in the grand scheme of things. Guess I was just feeling cranky.