I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook.
Things I love about Facebook:
- Seeing my friends and families updates – especially since my loved ones are spread out across Canada and the US.
- The motivational messages that people post.
- Information about upcoming events
- Finding out about new stores or services that relate to my interests (yes, I’m one of those wierdos who loves targeted marketing)
Things I hate about Facebook:
- The never-ending pregnancy announcements
- Ultrasounds as profile pics
- Countdowns til baby arrives
- People who post photos of their kids just for the sake of posting photos of their kids. Typically in these photos, the kids aren’t engaging in any sort of cute activity and the photo is blurry and/or lacks any sort of photography skill
I have decided that the pros outweigh the cons. I’m not willing to delete my Facebook account, but I really do think someone needs to build an app to allow you to omit certain images/posts from your feedback based on keyword. I work in software development. Why haven’t I gotten a friend to code this up for me?
Today, for the first time, I delete a Facebook friend due to a prego announcement.
Well, alright, she wasn’t EXACTLY a friend. She was a woman who used to work as a waitress near my husband’s home town. I’ve ran into her a few times. I know her in-laws, especially her mother-in-law as we used to sit on a Board together. Anyway…
Her announcement said something along the lines of: Well so much for that… I’m pregnant.
This woman has 3 kids between two baby-daddies, and her youngest are both under the age of 3. Obviously this post peaked my interest. You’ve got to be kidding me! SHE’S PREGNANT AGAIN?
Well it turned out, IT WAS A JOKE! For real? Who the fuck jokes about being pregnant on Facebook?
I guess it was one of those games where if you comment on your friend’s status, they give you something false and provocative to put as yours. Lame.
Anyway, I didn’t even think twice. I unfriended her immediately.
Crazy, insensitive fertiles. *headshake*
Awaiting Autumn 
Ah, I have the same relationship with Facebook. An alternative option is to hide someone from your feed, that way you don’t have to completely unfriend them, but you won’t see anything they post unless you specifically go to their page (that’s what I do to pretty much anyone in my newsfeed who is pregnant. But this chick sounded like she deserved to be unfriended. I also have a magical solution for you. It’s called unbaby.me. You tell it what you are trying to block (babies) and it will replace any pictures of that thing with something else you specify (puppies, kitties, whatever). It is the coolest. Third (sorry, this is getting long winded) WTF is with these stupid games that people are playing on Facebook. I had one friend who posted today that he was coming out of the closet (and people believe him) and another girl who posted that she was not wearing underwear anymore. This is the side of Facebook that makes me want to beat my head against a wall. I can’t wait for April Fool’s day when there will be more fake pregnancy posts. *Sigh*
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Ohhh interesting. Will have to check out the unbaby.me app. I need to remind myself to hide people if they start to get to me. And yes, that game is ridiculous! I keep seeing the “I got out of a speeding ticket by using my boobs” one. Should only get better with April Fool’s day :S
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OMG, I totally know how you feel. I am one of those that have been pushed over the edge… I deleted my FB account probably sometime summer last year. I was over it. I actually also deleted my original instagram account about 4 months ago. I have opened a new instagram account and only have my closest girlfriends on there (total of 6).
I’m sorry you had to deal with one of those ignorant posts on FB today. It is depressing to hear when someone is pregnant (c’mon, let’s all admit it), and then to conjure up that anxiety and find out it’s a cruel joke. Hang in there. Hugs.. xoxo
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I like to spam the baby-lovers on instagram with an abundance of cat/dog photos. They are my children so why not? haha
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I don’t blame you. We have 3 dogs of our own. And i’ll tell you what………I am a strong believer that nothing prepares you for motherhood like ANIMALS!! The poop, the mind reading, the (dis)obedience… hahaha!! I love my babies!!
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I’ve been logging back on FB lately to check on my brother and such. Today I saw that for the first time… It said, “I won 8,000 in a scratch off” and I thought.. good for her! But as it turns out, it was a lie. Who started this trend? Who thinks it’s okay to just lie? I limit myself from FB a lot.. I don’t trust emotions right now. But seriously, I agree with you, why would someone lie about that?! Also, I would so get back on FB if they had that software! That’s a great idea and it should be done!
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I don’t blame you one bit! I’ve blocked quite a few people until I can deal with it….one in particular for some nasty IF comments she made before anyone new.
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In January I deleted about 70 percent of my ‘friends’. Now when I log on, I only see the names of people I care about. I am so glad I got rid of all the extra distractions. It was driving me crazy.
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The unfollow button is my BFF.
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UGH!! I HATE the joke ones. Announcements are bad enough, but the torture for nothing drives me fucking nuts. I think I’ll post soon about how my step-sister joked about being PG on April Fools 2 years ago. We had words..
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I love FB because it is one of the only ways that I can stay in touch with the family and friends we do not see because of military moving. But the pregnancies. What, the, hell. I love how some women I know have not 1 or 2 children now, but are working on 3. Seriously? I hide or delete every single one of them. Sometimes I want to ragefully throw it in their faces, the fact that them flaunting it with no consideration literally ruins some folks. Then I passively aggressively block them. This vicious cycle sucks.
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I try to stay away from Facebook, if people would like to talk to me or see me they can either call me or stop by my house 🙂
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I “unfollow” someone as soon as I see the pregnancy announcement – I figure at this rate I will only have men in my feed – and if they become fathers – they are on the outs too – it might just be blank one day. I hate facebook. And I just can’t stop going back to it! But I have found that when I do unfriend someone that I am not actually friends with that there is this sort of free-ing feeling – hope you got that today 🙂
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Ugh! Seriously!!! That B! I know exactly how you feel. I too don’t want to give up Facebook because it helps me stay connected and I too have friends and family scattered throughout Canada and the US. I love your idea for a keyword filter so you can avoid certain posts! You should contact Facebook. Maybe they’ll hire you to program it 🙂 In the meantime, you can actually change your settings so you don’t see peoples news feeds anymore without having to unfriend them. I’ve done with this with several people now whose posts just became too much. When you unfriend someone, they know, but if you turn off their newsfeed, they have no idea and this way you can avoid them in secret. Just a suggestion for the future. Although, with this particular friend I think the unfriend was warranted and good for you! Good riddance!
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Ugggh I know exactly how you feel. Happens to me with instagram all the time. jealous tendency are now my favorite character defect but its one that I try to learn and accept.
Hope your husband has a speedy recovery!
Xoxo -C
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A very good family friend had this same “joke” on her facebook. I was tortured…what a cruel joke.
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