Do you have to unfollow or block your family on social media?

[♥ PrettySarcastic ♥]

I'll open by saying I make it a habit to stay off of Facebook.

I'm not of the under-30 group who spent their whole lives on it. I joined up reluctantly years ago mainly to keep track of family. These days I log on once every week or two, hastily scroll through and see who has what kids, pets, birthdays, etc., and make a break for it.

Now in the year of COVID, 2020, I find the same family I previously wanted to keep track of... I sure wish I could banish.

I don't expect to agree with everyone about everything - that's not the way the world works.

But the depth of how far some of my family and friends have carried their conspiracy theories, etc. (I'll leave it at that for the sake of not diving into Debate Forum territory) is just appalling.

And when you add in my wife's family? For the first time today I snoozed someone for a political view that was particularly out of tune with (in my opinion) common decency, and it was hard not to just unfriend them. (But I had this nasty thought, if I unfriend them I'll miss their tears in November, if there's tears... Okay just a snooze will do for now.)

I know that arguing with people on the internet is 99 times out of 100 a waste of time, so I try not to do it. I really try.

So, let's not argue on the internet.

Tell me - have you had to block, unfollow, snooze, or legit unfriend a family member, in-law, or former friend because of something they said, did, etc. on social media?

[Unown]

I'll open by saying I make it a habit to stay off of Facebook.

I'm not of the under-30 group who spent their whole lives on it. I joined up reluctantly years ago mainly to keep track of family. These days I log on once every week or two, hastily scroll through and see who has what kids, pets, birthdays, etc., and make a break for it.

Now in the year of COVID, 2020, I find the same family I previously wanted to keep track of... I sure wish I could banish.

I don't expect to agree with everyone about everything - that's not the way the world works.

But the depth of how far some of my family and friends have carried their conspiracy theories, etc. (I'll leave it at that for the sake of not diving into Debate Forum territory) is just appalling.

And when you add in my wife's family? For the first time today I snoozed someone for a political view that was particularly out of tune with (in my opinion) common decency, and it was hard not to just unfriend them. (But I had this nasty thought, if I unfriend them I'll miss their tears in November, if there's tears... Okay just a snooze will do for now.)

I know that arguing with people on the internet is 99 times out of 100 a waste of time, so I try not to do it. I really try.

So, let's not argue on the internet.

Tell me - have you had to block, unfollow, snooze, or legit unfriend a family member, in-law, or former friend because of something they said, did, etc. on social media?

I'm not sure about you. But at least in my country, (and it seems so in the US too), Facebook has become a breeding ground for angry and opinionated boomers. They like to share everything they think about, and comment on everything else.

I use Facebook mainly as a means of obtaining information via people who share news and/or watching videos (funny, short vids, cooking etc) but other than that I do not take part in any conversation that people may have/online debates. Well, sometimes I take screenshots and send them to my friends for laughs, but I certainly do not take part.

I agree that family can be annoying and embarrassing, especially if they are huge in the online debate. Blocking them could be a way - but you could just hide their content for a year, and just not deal with them

I did unfriend an aunt, but that wasn't because they were annoying but because she tried to borrow money from me after having borrowed a substantial sum from my mum and has not returned the money.

[Crow]

I joined Facebook in 2009 so I've been on it for a while and have seen it go through many changes. It's only recently that I've started working on actively diminishing my time spent there. Facebook is always a toxic environment during election season so I really should've expected it, but ahhhh it's so hard to stay friends with people.

I, too, created and stay on Facebook to keep in touch with family/friends. But I've unfollowed 20+ people since May and unfriended 30+. I've also been unfriended by 20+ people. I generally try to unfollow rather than unfriend people, unless I feel like it's better/safer for me to just unfriend them altogether. I also try to limit the number of political posts that I make but it's so hard to stay silent when everyone on your feed is posting such absolute bullshit.

[Mama Bear]

Like you, I am not a massive user of social media. I keep my friends list as small as possible, but wish I could further trim people like my mother who post stupid shit. I agree about not arguing. Particularly when it's 'family', it's not worth the drama and fallout that would result from it. I'm not someone who likes to bite her tongue though, so when she posts ignorant crap it is so hard for me not to step in. I feel badly for not, because I worry that in allowing those views to go unchecked, I am implicitly condoning them. It's not that she's has malicious intentions behind things like "all lives matter"; it stems from her ignorance and lack of exposure to the world beyond her selfish little bubble.

So to answer your question, yes, I have unfriended/ignored the requests of those I could get away with and silenced those who remain that piss me off. I have no qualms with that.

[Lilostitch]

I do in Instagram because of things I think they'd find innapropriate (like some of my art performance pics and stuff I post on stories) but in this media only. I do not really agree with mostly of my family's opinions but I try to be patient if they are not disrespecting me or anyone. It is rare for them to come with really extreme ideas so I actually keep them in the other medias.

You're talking about angry boomers and even though most of my family has voted to my nasty president they aren't usually disrespectful, so, I try to consider their age and generation as well to try to keep a dialogue as much as possible... sometimes they can be really open minded! But I do understand that are families that reeeeaaallly go way too far..

[♥ PrettySarcastic ♥]

Like you, I am not a massive user of social media. I keep my friends list as small as possible, but wish I could further trim people like my mother who post stupid shit. I agree about not arguing. Particularly when it's 'family', it's not worth the drama and fallout that would result from it. I'm not someone who likes to bite her tongue though, so when she posts ignorant crap it is so hard for me not to step in. I feel badly for not, because I worry that in allowing those views to go unchecked, I am implicitly condoning them. It's not that she's has malicious intentions behind things like "all lives matter"; it stems from her ignorance and lack of exposure to the world beyond her selfish little bubble.

So to answer your question, yes, I have unfriended/ignored the requests of those I could get away with and silenced those who remain that piss me off. I have no qualms with that.

Exactly!

When I scroll past someone posting something very, very off base or that I know to be factually inaccurate, and I see all their ridiculous friends piling on with the likes, hearts and such, my fingers start twitching and my mouse hand reaches for sources to throw at them.

I feel like if I don't say something, I'm accepting their view as OK, and it's not.

It just becomes frustrating.

So I log on less and less. Which is a little sad, because I miss the occasional update of niece & nephew pictures from my insane sister, or catching my favorite author who does post regularly on Facebook, but it's just... so toxic?

(Also how many MLMs are there these days holy cow?)

[dustyc]

Oh, absolutely. Maybe it's just because it's an election year, but whew my family members have been posting some crazy stuff on Facebook. A few months ago I snoozed/unfollowed my aunt, uncle, and mother. Sure, they've always posted a few things here and there that I disagreed with in the ten or so years that I followed them on there. But now I feel like they don't even share anything personal at all, everything's political and about covid. And why would I wanna scroll through and get angered by stuff like that when the unfollow button's right there? Years ago I unfriended some aunts from my father's side of the family as well for similar reasons, but I never talked to them anyways.

And maybe I'm just super petty, or maybe I'm just overthinking how big of a deal it is, but I also removed them from the relatives or family section on my profile, I'm not sure what it's called. Even their profile pictures displayed beliefs I don't agree with, and I found it kind of embarrassing to have them there.

Edit to add: Actually, right before I blocked off my uncle's posts, he posted something that was false so I commented a friendly little "Hey, actually, this is wrong and here's why" complete with an educational source. And he just completely ignored the comment.

[kittyray]

I don't post constantly to facebook the way I did in high school when it was new and shiny, most are crossposts from instagram, which between three accounts don't get more than 2-3 posts a month. My peak facebook years were when it was very uncool to be friends with relatives and then by the time that stopped I wasn't using it much, so I don't have very many on there. The biggest thing was when I became facebook official with my ex, I had to hide a handful of people because I wasn't out to my family yet. I don't really interact with posts much, mostly use it for messages and groups, but fortunately a lot of my family is pretty level-headed.

I did have to have my mom stop following on instagram because she didn't totally get the difference between me making posts and messaging her, I guess? Like I made a post where I talked about wanting to get out of the city to a place with more nature than the suburbs, and she took it as me saying I didn't want to visit home and feeling hurt, but also surprised me with a weekend trip to go hiking, which was very nice, but also led to some guilt-tripping. She's since refollowed now that she understands how things work, but I'm still mindful of how I phrase comments when I do post, just in case.

[Fiore]

I’m a big fat introvert and I think that reflects my online persona as well. I’m not terribly active on social media but I always found myself unfollowing/ignoring/muting friends and family because more often than not they post uninteresting shit every 5 minutes or they eventually make asses of themselves.

I recently “ended” a nearly 2 decade long relationship with someone I considered a very close friend because they got really bitchy with me through texts/online. They were disrespectful with my identity for years and recently they tried to wedge themselves back into my life (and my Instagram and Twitter) and there was just something about their tone that was really...condescending? Like why come back to me with this whole new “progressive” attitude but keep throwing in snide remarks here and there? They’ve been the only person I’ve really had to block. After trying to make me look like I’m the bad guy, I had to tell them that it’s ok if they disagree with me (I don’t expect everyone to and it’s totally fine to debate and ask questions) but just don’t be a disrespectful asshole about it?

I also don’t actively add friends and family but if they find me I’ll usually follow back. Or ignore. It depends. I just wanna look at food porn (and post it).

[Werewolf]

I can�t say I�ve ever unfriended family, because thankfully my family is a breath of fresh air and we all maintain the same views. When I came out to my parents, they were nothing but supportive. Now... I�ve definitely unfollowed and Unfriended many so-called �friends� after learning some of their more personal opinions, especially regarding women and minorities. People seem baffled at the concept of not being friends with someone based on �political views� but it�s always closet bigots that go around saying that shit. Coincidence? I think not.
Edit: also, good fucking god, the conspiracy theory bs on social media is rampant right now. It�s disturbing how many seemingly reasonable people seem to believe the idiocy that is QAnon.