How do you feel about hitting that Facebook "unfollow" button on a loved one?

IMAGE: PCmag

Let's start with the elephant in the room: regardless of what they do or how they do it, Facebook has a hold on its customer base. I know they have scandal after scandal and even a nationwide "delete Facebook" campaign, but they continue to have over a billion users. Like it or not, most people use it, and most people spend a good bit of time on it. Fact.

Now, why do we spend so much time on Facebook? Well, it gives us information and updates on those we love and allows us to stay connected to those we do not see regularly. Do I get to see my sister and niece every day? No, but I can keep up with her accomplishments and stay connected. On the other hand, the bad thing about Facebook is it gives us information and allows us to stay connected with those we love.

IMAGE: Gadgets.NDTV

Wait what?

Yes, as much as we love our family and friends, we often do not see eye-to-eye on things such as politics, religion, sports, child-raising, et cetera. That is part of life, and when we have conversations with these people, it is all good because we know not to bring up certain topics in anticipation of an inevitable argument. Facebook, however, allows us to share whatever we want, whenever we want, to whoever we want (obviously within reason), and that is where problems start.

Personally, I believe we are all entitled to our opinions because I have certainly shared mine from time to time; I am also well-aware that I am a progressive borderline-liberal living in an area where everyone's family for the last 150 years or more have been ultra-conservative. Because of that, I leave my opinions to myself (or Twitter). Let's be honest though, I am far from the first person to have a ton of family and friends with completely differing opinions on many things, and unfortunately, those people like to share every single thing on their mind on Facebook.

Thankfully, Facebook gives us this wonderful tool to either unfollow or snooze anyone. So, by doing this, you either have to no longer see someone's posts indefinitely or for at least 30 days without insulting them (possibly) by unfriending. From experience, I can tell you that this tool is wonderful. There are people I am very close with and get along with very well (including family members) that I would hate to ostracize by unfriending them, but at the same time, I cannot take every single thing they choose to share. I would say that the issue with many of these posts, primarily the political ones, is that they make no sense and are often ridiculous.

IMAGE: Me.me

Now, while I know that this tool is both magnificent, simple, and incredibly useful, but at the same time, I do wonder about how people feel about using it. Most people love their family and friends and obviously would never wish to ruin a relationship with them so how do you feel about basically saying that you cannot stand the words coming out of their mouth? I know that sounds harsh, but in essence, it is completely true. Regardless of personal feelings about the person, we cannot take the ridiculousness of some people's words and opinions.

Harsh as it may be, I personally feel not a shred of guilt for unfollowing even those close to me, but maybe I am the odd one for that feeling. Some times it is because of not having to see how people truly think and feel that I can maintain that feeling of closeness with them. I know I cannot be alone in using this tool, and I am genuinely interested in how people feel when hitting that unfollow or snooze button.


P.S. I would have loved to have this as a podcast topic, but as HardwYred has yet to dip in to the podcast market, I believe it is a topic worthy of discussion on here.