Facebook is a dangerous place. It’s filled with ex-boyfriends, ex-best friends, frenemies, relatives you never see, and even, in my case, your boss. If you start wandering too far into these profiles you might learn things you were better off not knowing. Did you want to see that your ex is happily married with the two cutest kids you have ever seen? Did you want to hear that guy from High School’s political ramblings? Did you want to know how your 700 closest friends feel about everything from guns to God? Below are some examples of the perils of Facebook – the names have been left out to protect the “innocent.”
I first knew that Facebook was a dangerous place when I logged on about three years ago to a message from my husband’s ex-fiance’. Now, I have never met this girl before in my life but I knew her name. She was warning me to “watch out,” that my husband was a “dangerous person.” I immediately woke him up to tell him about the message. A Facebook fight on MY account ensued. Totally childish. Here I was a 30-something married, pregnant adult fighting on Facebook with some woman I have never met. Now there’s an unintended consequence of sharing your life on the largest social networking site in the world.
Soon afterwards, a family member started to do a bit of digging about her husband on Facebook. After a bit of investigation she found that he had been communicating with an ex-girlfriend. He was a cheater. A cheater who was caught by his wife on Facebook. Needless to say they are no longer married and everyone is better off for it.
And this brings me to the real reason I am writing this blog. Over Christmas one of my relatives “liked” a comment about a very controversial topic. Another family member noticed the “like” and was very upset by it for a number of reasons. Frankly, the whole thing was one large miscommunication but it literally tore our family apart. We could no longer have everyone over for Christmas together. And the holidays just weren’t the same. All because of a “like.”
So, the next time you want to correspond with an ex just to see how they are doing, or you want to post a comment about a controversial topic or maybe you want to put a photo out there of you drinking the biggest beer you can possibly hold, think twice. The world of Facebook is a dangerous place and you may get yourself in trouble with one of your many “friends.” In fact, I’m pretty sure I will be in the doghouse with a few for posting this blog.
Please use social media responsibly in 2014!
One reply on “Facebook Foibles”
Bridget January 7, 2014 at 1:01 am
My brother has been off Facebook for years. I’ve thought of deleting my account but so many of my relatives, that is their primary form of communication.