Facebook questions: Responding to controversial posts?

[bisous]

Some of my FB friends only ever post political stuff. I hide most of them, I admit it! Unless they're so outlandish that I read them almost for entertainment. That sounds really mean! But honestly, most of my friends I don't hide. I like to know what is going on in their lives!

I have a new friend that I met through an organization for my DS' chronic disease. I have met her IRL and I think she's a lovely person. Kind, friendly, open, I really feel like she's supportive and I could trust her. I like being her FB friend because she posts a lot of stuff related to the condition our kids share. Well, she also posts a lot of anti-religion stuff. I don't mind reading about any particular religion that my friends might belong to. I like it actually. Whether you are Pagan or Hindu or Catholic or Muslim. I also respect her belief that she doesn't believe in God. That's just fine. She should be free to do that. I just don't like the negative stuff. But her posts belittle things that are sacred and special to me and it hurts to read them! I suppose similar to how I would feel reading an anti-muslim post except this time, it isn't just mean, its personal. I don't want to unfriend her at all and I also don't want to hide her. I like reading her posts about her life and her kids and she lives near me so I feel like I should be apprised of what is going on. So what should I do? Should I tell her it offends me? If she posts it should I feel free to comment? (I don't usually comment if I don't agree--just don't want the drama). But done is a respectful way is this okay to do? Like a conversation? Can be done civilly? Honestly, sounds like not such a great idea to me.

Should I hide? Should I comment? Should I send a pm? Or should I just get over it? Facebook is tiring to me lately in some respects. And in others it is just awesome. Love my connections through various groups that make my life so much richer. Its just my "friends" that get me down, lol!

[geochick]

I have friends like this too, and I have given this problem a lot of thought. I know some people who politely confront their friends about their posts. I know others who unfriend or block. The thing is, it's your friend's wall...and it's kind of like a Facebook yearbook page...for her, not you. You can post what you want on your wall. FB is a place to share thoughts about who you are...a place to define yourself. I think you should "get over it." That's what I choose to do with my friends like this. YOU have options. Accept the friend...or not. Read or don't read.

[bisous]

That's exactly what DH would say. And probably the best tactic.

[AustenFan]

My childhood best friend is into some conspiracy theory stuff I'm not on board with, and she posts a ton. After getting increasingly frustrated with various topics (we disagree about modern medicine, for one thing--vaccines, birth, etc--hot button issues!), I decided to unfollow her. When I'm wondering what she's up to, I scroll through her page to see pictures. I still follow her mom and her husband, so I tend to still see the big life stuff from their feeds. But I realized our relationship is too important for me to be mad at her for things in a virtual world that we never discuss in real life. This past year, I also opted to unfollow anyone who posts a lot about hot button issues (that I agree or disagree with--I dislike facebook fights in general). My feed is mostly cute pictures of friends' kids, and that's how I like it. I don't unfriend people I disagree with, I just don't need those disagreements to be what I see when I sign on to facebook. I will say that I am actually not facebook friends with most of my local friends--for me, facebook takes the place of seeing a friend at the park/grocery store/church/soccer field and catching up on each other's lives. I think it's possible to be friends with people IRL without following them on facebook!

[egoldber]

I never do political or religious stuff on FB because it just isn't fun to me. The few friends I have who post a lot about politics and/or religion, even when I agree, I mainly just ignore it. I often don't even like things I agree with, because then FB just shows me MORE of those types of things.

I will say that one of the downsides to FB is that I "see" a lot of the inner thoughts of some people that I only know casually. And often I wish I had never known!

[Pear]

My Facebook philosophy is to treat it like a big extended family Thanksgiving dinner. I keep politics and religion out of it. If someone else brings up the subject, I ask them to pass the bean dip.

You can hide individual posts. If you want to stay friends with this person, then when you notice this type of post, just hide it.

[SnuggleBuggles]

On every post, there's a drop down button at the top and you can select to not view that post. It'll disappear from your feed (not theirs). It'll ask you why you don't want to see it. I don't know how good the magical Facebook algorithms are but I wonder if you can train it not to show religious stuff from her.

[JBaxter]

I ignore them my news feed is so busy it gets buried in a few minutes when I refresh.

[khm]

My Facebook philosophy is to treat it like a big extended family Thanksgiving dinner. I keep politics and religion out of it. If someone else brings up the subject, I ask them to pass the bean dip.

You can hide individual posts. If you want to stay friends with this person, then when you notice this type of post, just hide it.

Yes, hide the individual post, then you won't see the comment. Additionally, there's usually an option to hide all from that source (ie, Hide All from XZY Magazine/News). Do it enough, and many of her favorite sources will be hidden from you. You can also pick a box re: why you don't like the article, their algorithm might figure it out for the other one-off sources too.

But really, just adopt a "eyeroll" strategy.

[carolinacool]

I never do political or religious stuff on FB because it just isn't fun to me. The few friends I have who post a lot about politics and/or religion, even when I agree, I mainly just ignore it. I often don't even like things I agree with, because then FB just shows me MORE of those types of things.

I will say that one of the downsides to FB is that I "see" a lot of the inner thoughts of some people that I only know casually. And often I wish I had never known!

I agree. Since her second marriage, one of my best friends has gotten VERY conservative, both politically and religiously. As in, she refuses to buy Girl Scout cookies from another of our friend because of "what the Girl Scouts support." In person she's mostly fine and I love her but on Facebook, oh boy. I really try to ignore her, but my DH has a much harder time. Well, a few weeks ago she posted one of those Tim Tebow memes that are floating around. One of those basically said the same people who support gay rights or Caitlin Jenner or the same ones who hate Tebow and where he stands for religiously. Which just isn't true for a variety of reasons. And he went off on her page.

I will say, I am at the troubled about the things she repost about the Obamas. Some of them really walk that line of being racist, and it makes me wonder what she thinks about our friendship. But then she seems to be supporting Herman Cain, so who the hell knows. Lol

I have started hiding some of her posts, which does sometimes give me the option of blocking all posts from XXX website like a previous poster said. It does help.