Over the past month, I have noticed numerous status updates dealing with troubles in life, including school, job, relationships or family. At the same time, some people's statuses have expressed their disgust with reading about individual's troubles in life.
Why do we post a status update on Facebook? Because we want someone, or our entire network of friends, to know. We want reactions. We want Likes. We want comments. So much of our lives are devoted to spending time on Facebook, 53 million minutes in May only. Now I ask the people that are tired of reading about how bad life is going for their Facebook friends, aren't you just feeding into what they want from you - a reaction? While you may not be directly posting to their Facebook status, you are reacting, but I digress.
Want that friend to know how you feel? Post to Facebook. Want to get a reaction from a boyfriend, girlfriend, or ex? Post to Facebook. Want to just get people on your side on a particular issue? Post to Facebook.
While the reasonable option is to unfriend or block the individual annoying you, people won't because we have created unfriending on Facebook to be a serious matter. Or you don't want to unfriend them because you want to continue to keep tabs on them or hope sooner or later they will just stop posting those types of statuses.
So how can we deal with all of this now? With the recent release of Facebook's Subscribe button, it has created a new level of management for your Facebook friend's activities. You know have the ability to filter out who you want to hear from and how often. Facebook offers three settings:
Now these settings allow you to control how much and what you see from your friends. While the Subscribe feature allows you to perform other functions like subscribing to a feed of someone you aren't friends with (obviously that depends on if they allow that information to be public), the first step related to this posting is the ability to control what you read about your friends.
It wil be interesting to see how and if people start to use the Subscribe button, a hybrid of Twitter's Follow and Google+ circles.
Why do we post a status update on Facebook? Because we want someone, or our entire network of friends, to know. We want reactions. We want Likes. We want comments. So much of our lives are devoted to spending time on Facebook, 53 million minutes in May only. Now I ask the people that are tired of reading about how bad life is going for their Facebook friends, aren't you just feeding into what they want from you - a reaction? While you may not be directly posting to their Facebook status, you are reacting, but I digress.
Want that friend to know how you feel? Post to Facebook. Want to get a reaction from a boyfriend, girlfriend, or ex? Post to Facebook. Want to just get people on your side on a particular issue? Post to Facebook.
While the reasonable option is to unfriend or block the individual annoying you, people won't because we have created unfriending on Facebook to be a serious matter. Or you don't want to unfriend them because you want to continue to keep tabs on them or hope sooner or later they will just stop posting those types of statuses.
So how can we deal with all of this now? With the recent release of Facebook's Subscribe button, it has created a new level of management for your Facebook friend's activities. You know have the ability to filter out who you want to hear from and how often. Facebook offers three settings:
- All Updates
- Most Updates
- Important Updates only
Now these settings allow you to control how much and what you see from your friends. While the Subscribe feature allows you to perform other functions like subscribing to a feed of someone you aren't friends with (obviously that depends on if they allow that information to be public), the first step related to this posting is the ability to control what you read about your friends.
It wil be interesting to see how and if people start to use the Subscribe button, a hybrid of Twitter's Follow and Google+ circles.
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