Facebook Posts of Horror Idiots / PTSD

Ian C · July 12, 2016, 12:38:03 PM

I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, mostly long-distance ones. What I find condescending and patronising are those people who criticise us for not posting anything deeply serious/political/topical. If I do post a photo of my cat it doesn't mean I'm a shallow cretin with no political or humanitarian awareness.

Having said that, I don't know about anyone else, but seeing seriously horrific posts on my Facebook feed is not good. I'm sick of seeing photos of dead babies, mutilated corpses and so on, from people who want to get on their soapboxes and tell all their friends how bad the world is. We know how bad the world is. As someone who suffers PTSD and has seen dead people for real I wish these dickheads would offer me a choice of whether I want to see this kind of horror, like posting a link with a warning first. Giving me no choice is like me walking into their home with a dead mangled roadkill and throwing it on their dinner table shouting "this is bloody awful isn't it?".

I find this kind of horrific photo post triggering and within 10 minutes I'm raging and want to rip someone's head off. I often spend the rest of the day in a state of negativity and anger, usually the night too.

So, it is not without a sense of irony that I saw this from one of my Facebook acquaintances.

She had been constantly posting outrageous photos of death and destruction. While there's nothing wrong with drawing attention to the plight of victims in war zones, no one who saw her posts had any choice but to see the horror.
She didn't realise that Facebook's advertising and newsfeed algorithms monitor what we post, and show things for us accordingly to match our own interests. As a result, she recently got bombarded with a ton of death and horror herself and decided to take a break. While I don't find this funny, I couldn't help but feel 'serve yourself right'. Facebook Karma.

Rant over.

Thank you.

bayonetbrant · July 12, 2016, 01:07:10 PM

You can always just unfollow people... I'm about to do that to a bunch of folks who are trying my patience

Barthheart · July 12, 2016, 01:13:54 PM

"unfold"... :D

Maybe unfriend, but I like my people with hospital corners thank you very much.

Ian, it's really not good to have to be put through all that. I recently unfriended someone I had known for better that 4o years because of all the conspiracy theory crap she was spreading. Tried to educate here on the errors of her post but got flamed for being ignorant of the evil in the world....

Bye, bye.

Con · July 12, 2016, 01:19:32 PM

Quote from: Barthheart on July 12, 2016, 01:13:54 PM
"unfold"... :D

Maybe unfriend, but I like my people with hospital corners thank you very much.

Ian, it's really not good to have to be put through all that. I recently unfriended someone I had known for better that 4o years because of all the conspiracy theory crap she was spreading. Tried to educate here on the errors of her post but got flamed for being ignorant of the evil in the world.... Bye, bye.

Was she convinced man had walked on the moon becuase thats just plain crazy there is like no oxygen up there. People like that just wont be brow beaten into believing that dinosaurs and cave people roamed the earth together until noahs ark wouldnt let the lizards on 5000 years ago and they all drowned. You can try and try to convince them with belligerent rhetoric and getting shrill but they wont let go of something as inconsequential as facts! :)

Con

Ian C · July 12, 2016, 01:25:32 PM

Quote from: Barthheart on July 12, 2016, 01:13:54 PM
"unfold"... :D

Maybe unfriend, but I like my people with hospital corners thank you very much.

Ian, it's really not good to have to be put through all that. I recently unfriended someone I had known for better that 4o years because of all the conspiracy theory crap she was spreading. Tried to educate here on the errors of her post but got flamed for being ignorant of the evil in the world.... Bye, bye.

'Unfolding' sounds like tearing someone's mind apart. PMSL.

Unfriending is an option, sure, but some of these people are old family friends. I can block their posts (without them knowing) but then again, it means I won't see any posts from them.
It all boils down to them doing the right thing and giving their friends a choice in what they see. While a lot of these friends are highly intelligent and good decent people they are just dumb in other ways.

I don't mind anyone having really 'out there' views. As long as it doesn't affect me personally. If anything gets too toxic, I'm out of there.

I did date a woman once who was into some really weird shit (Lizards, fake moon landings, secret societies etc.) but I didn't mind because she had great tits and ass.
Sorry if that sounds shallow for some, but I was much much younger back then.

Dammit Carl! · July 12, 2016, 01:30:25 PM

I never was "big," on facebook per se; understood its importance for others but it just didn't click with me.

Having said that, the craziest thing I saw was the hard right turning of a fellow I had known for a few years. It started with reposting of some article critical of Pres. Obama or someone/something related to his administration here and there very early in his (Obama's) tenure. Then, the reposting became pretty much all that this guy would do followed on with statements of his own that just didn't jive with the person I used to know. At the end, there was some seriously hard core things that were put up by him that was enough for me, so that was that for him.

Personal political beliefs aside, it was a sort-of interesting event to see a person's change of opinion/point-of-view play itself out via this media.

bayonetbrant · July 12, 2016, 01:39:59 PM

F'n' autocorrect

Nefaro · July 12, 2016, 01:42:16 PM

Quote from: bayonetbrant on July 12, 2016, 01:39:59 PM
F'n' autocorrect

Good dam that forking auto-correct shirt!

Barthheart · July 12, 2016, 01:50:44 PM

Quote from: Ian C on July 12, 2016, 01:25:32 PM
...
I did date a woman once who was into some really weird shit (Lizards, fake moon landings, secret societies etc.) but I didn't mind because she had great tits and ass.
Sorry if that sounds shallow for some, but I was much much younger back then.

Sounds like the same woman I'm talking about. ;)

panzerde · July 12, 2016, 05:40:49 PM

I deliberately avoided connecting with my family on FB for years because as soon as I did so, all of the crowd I knew from High School wanted to friend me. I did that once, years ago, and all the insane stuff started showing up in my feed. I actually killed my FB account for a few years just to get away from it.

Now, I don't usually friend family and old friends. I only use FB to connect with grogs, and the occasional co-worker or former co-worker. Makes for a much less drama filled FB experience. And, while I was never particularly tolerant of the BS, once I hit 50 I became absolutely merciless. Life is too short to give any amount of your time to the idiots and parasites.

bayonetbrant · July 12, 2016, 06:02:52 PM

I'm about to seriously unplug me from most social media, aside from reposting Grog stuff.

I'm so pissed off at some people right now I can't see straight.

Freyland · July 13, 2016, 07:43:28 AM

Quote from: Ian C on July 12, 2016, 01:25:32 PM
I did date a woman once who was into some really weird shit (Lizards, fake moon landings, secret societies etc.) but I didn't mind because she had great tits and ass.
Sorry if that sounds shallow for some, but I was much much younger back then.

Inappropriate pictures would go far to achieving your redemption, or at least spreading the guilt more thinly....

Sir Slash · July 13, 2016, 08:41:45 AM

Great T&A outweighs crazy anytime in my book. In fact, great, and crazy T&A is worth going-along with a fake Moon-Landing.

Freyland · July 13, 2016, 10:09:12 AM

In the context of where we are taking this, "moon-landing" sounds pretty kinky, actually.

Ian C · July 13, 2016, 01:51:34 PM

Quote from: Freyland on July 13, 2016, 07:43:28 AM
Quote from: Ian C on July 12, 2016, 01:25:32 PM
I did date a woman once who was into some really weird shit (Lizards, fake moon landings, secret societies etc.) but I didn't mind because she had great tits and ass.
Sorry if that sounds shallow for some, but I was much much younger back then.

Inappropriate pictures would go far to achieving your redemption, or at least spreading the guilt more thinly....

I will not under any circumstances compromise a former GF. I don't have any pics anyhow and keeping saucy pics of exe's is more dangerous than anything. I have a friend whose marriage nearly imploded through this. His wife found a chronological stash of pics on a USB stick.