Why You Should Tolerate Unoriginal Posts

We all have friends who think they are relay stations for important news. Whether it is local, state, or national headlines they are sharing it with gusto. I admit, I used to do this a lot.

When it comes to the news posts, I’m going to be the first one to admit I learn more about breaking news from Facebook/Twitter than I do from any other information service. And, usually, it’s not from the pages of legitimate news outlets either. Because of the new Facebook algorithm (which makes me growl) people often don’t see posts from pages. Even though I depend on the pages of CNN, Foxnews, and NPR to keep me updated on all the breaking news it doesn’t always work this way. I tend to learn about it first from my friends. Just because you’ve seen half your friends share some article about a breaking news event, doesn’t mean everyone is. Each one of them may reach out to someone who doesn’t know what’s going on.

Or, we have Facebook lemming friends, who post the same exact thing everyone else is. A great example is the last real cold spell we had over the winter. The temperatures at night would get well under zero, which to be honest was an oddity. It seems like everyone on my list was posting screenshots of their phone’s weather app showing the temperature. The same goes for really nice days, when we would have above average temperatures. I would have wall full of screenshots with captions. I admit, it even starting making me check Facebook less. And, if it keeps me from Facebook you know it’s a major issue.

We have family in different parts of the country. When the weather is amazing here, it’s usually crappy there. I love to post updates about amazing weather just to thumb my nose at them. They do the same to us. I know we aren’t alone. The majority of those cold/warm weather posts came with updates aimed at family. When your area is about 20+ degrees cooler than normal, this is news that affects you personally. It deserves to be documented. Yes, it’s annoying but just wait it out. It doesn’t last forever.

The lemmings may seem like they are following the herd, but sometimes it’s just a large group of people experiencing the same thing.

Then you have the “share if you love your kid” type crap. I’m growling as I type right now, because I hate those damn posts. It is such emotional blackmail used to promote pages who don’t actually care whether you care about your children, they are just trying to increase their stats. The only thing that upsets me more is companies who run those stupid like contests. I call this like farming. “Like and share our page and you will be entered into a drawing.” Blah, blah, blah. This is completely useless. It doesn’t help get an organic audience. All it does is clutter my feed with pages no one cares about. They just want a chance at free stuff.

These I have no tolerance for. But, that’s just me being Grr. Maybe our friends are genuinely interested in the knick-knack store. Obviously, our mother’s do love us and love an excuse to admit it.

Even though these clog up our feeds with useless and redundant information these posts serve a purpose for the posters and should be tolerated. Everyone expresses themselves different, and Facebook is an extension of that self expression. So, be patient with your friends.

 

 

 

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