[Edit]Holy cow have my last few blog posts and this one been serious in nature! I have got to get back to more of the humorous stories of my life! I've got one or two in mind that I might do within the next couple days or so.[/Edit]
I had an interesting day today. I decided to unfollow someone on my friends list in Facebook. Keeping with how I run this blog, I'm not going to name this person. Please don't try to guess, you'll get no response.
For those who don't know, when you unfollow someone on Facebook, his or her posts don't show up on your main page unless they specifically mention you in a post. You are still friends with them, and still have all of those privileges, but you don't see items that they "Like".
This is not the first time I have done something like this. I have done it to a few people now. A couple of them I am related to. Again, no guessing!
It is always a case of somebody whose posts to my news feed just get so voluminous that I get tired of looking at it. Sorry if it sounds harsh (especially as you're reading a blog dedicated to me just blabbing at the mouth / keyboard).
Today's offender was one who has been posting a huge number of political stories / links / rants / meme images. They came in bunches each day, so much so that I just had to say that enough was enough.
I like him as a person just fine. He and I get along well. He's not just someone that I interact with only on Facebook. We have a number of things in common. Our in-person interactions have actually never brought up politics.
Because of what we have in common, I gave him the courtesy of a text message giving a short explanation of what I was planning on doing and why. He took it graciously, but stated that he wasn't going to slow down on the political stuff. That is perfectly acceptable, of course. He is welcome to continue bringing exposure to the things he thinks are worthy of attention. Facebook can handle the load just fine. I just recommended that he slow down on that kind of stuff.
A good analogy is the boy who cried wolf. There was just so much stuff being put up on "teh interwebs" that any grand theme got lost in the clutter. There were just too many topics for the audience to focus on. Alarmist pieces only work if they are used sparingly. Create them in droves and your audience is just going to complain that the wolf crier is pestering them all the time. Then, when the real issue that you deeply care about comes up, it will not receive the attention that you want since you cried wolf too many times.
I should probably note that I have unfollowed a person each from both sides of the liberal and conservative spectrum. Each was for the same reason, a deluge of political posts. Whether or not I agreed with them didn't matter.
A number of you know that I was deeply into politics from the period of about age 17 until maybe the mid-twenties or so. I was passionate about reading up on political stuff. My positions on most of the issues haven't changed much, but I have mellowed in intensity quite a bit.
Which part of the political spectrum's Cartesian coordinates I fall in isn't relevant, but I recommend something like here if you don't know where you fall. If I feel like reading political material at some time, I'll read stuff from people from all over the spectrum. I have the ability to read biased material and come to my own conclusions on which parts I agree with and how their biases and experiences affect their argument / beliefs.
However, you will rarely see me discuss my political beliefs publicly, especially not on the internet. I will only discuss this kind of stuff privately, in person, and only in the right context. No, texting doesn't count. I need to be able to see facial expressions and your reactions to what I say. That will allow me to guide the conversation in a direction that will best suit both our needs at the time.
I go to Facebook to easily keep connected with a lot of people and to see the things that they are up to. I don't go there to get an education in politics, or to change somebody's views on a political issue. I also don't go there to respond to anybody's game requests :) Those are quickly deleted!
Other tidbits that don't really fit in with the narrative above:
Every so often, like every couple years, I go through my friends list and weed out the ones I am no longer in contact with. I am not one of those who just try to rack up as many friend requests as possible. That's cool if you want to do it that way, it's just not my style. I also don't have circles of people that get told some things and others that get excluded. Everything that I post on Facebook, or on here, or any other social media is fair game. If I minded it going public, I wouldn't post it. If I have any private info I need to take care of, I'll send a private message if the medium allows it, or I'll find another way to do it without the public knowing about it.
