Social Network Pettiness

[Yuki-Anne]

So, today, I had someone de-friend me on facebook because she posted Downton Abbey spoilers on her status, and I commented that maybe she shouldn't do that, because not everybody's watched it.

So that made me wonder... you know, the internet allows people to be as petty as they like. So what's the most petty thing you've been dropped/dropped somebody over?

[Xeno]

I've dropped some people due to them incessantly posting things that frustrated me. I have very strong political opinions, and I don't mind if people I know have opinions that are different from my own, but when they post obtuse things every day, sometimes multiple times a day, just to incite frustration...yeah no. I'm pretty sure I've been removed from some lists because of my political and religious views though.

[Yuki-Anne]

I don't know that that's petty. I get annoyed with those incessant posts too, even the ones I don't disagree with.

[Jingo Jaden]

I generally just unfollow people rather than unfriend them. I've been unfriended by several and only a couple of times have I ever directly removed someone.

But yes, excessive politics is generally a very valid reason to unfollow some people. As far as peoples standards for friends I would not presume to draw the line in a murky and rather gray area. Though not all facebook friends are equal and if some do not really have any connection at all, then I can see no harm in unfriending someone if they get irked by some behavioral patterns.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

How close were you to the person in question? I know I personally try to actually keep my friends list trimmed down to people I'm close to (by Facebook standards, anyways). It's not that I dislike a lot of the people I trim/ignore but rather I don't really expect to really need to talk to them and so I'm not all that curious about what's going on in their life. Right now my list of friends is at 86, which I think is actually down since I last checked? I expect it'll jump quite a bit higher when I go to college next school year but I can see if someone who you haven't seen in years that wants to have in depth discussions about Downton Abbey on Facebook not feeling the need to keep seeing some schoolmate from high school on Facebook.

[Vilo159]

I've dropped some people due to them incessantly posting things that frustrated me. I have very strong political opinions, and I don't mind if people I know have opinions that are different from my own, but when they post obtuse things every day, sometimes multiple times a day, just to incite frustration...yeah no. I'm pretty sure I've been removed from some lists because of my political and religious views though.

Ugh, like three of my uncles are this way. But like Jaden, I typically just hide them. They're the kind of people who would get really offended if their nephew unfriended them.

As for pettiness, I really dislike it so I try not to do it. The closest thing to pettiness for me would be the friend list purges, where I go delete people I only met once and only accepted out of courtesy or who I haven't talked to in years and don't care about and such. They don't miss me, I don't miss them.

[K. Ayato]

I personally can't stand comment debates. If someone has a beef with what someone else said or posted in a comment, PLEASE be courteous and continue one-on-one via private messages. Overall it just looks ugly (not to mention downright rude) to clutter someone's post with comments going back and forth between two or more people who can't find common ground.

[goldenspines]

I don't really use Facebook for anything but stalking, er, keeping track of people I know. >_> I've dropped/unfriended someone over sending me too many game requests before, though (up to 35 each day @_@).

[K. Ayato]

goldy, you can always block the games.

[Atria35]

So, today, I had someone de-friend me on facebook because she posted Downton Abbey spoilers on her status, and I commented that maybe she shouldn't do that, because not everybody's watched it.

So that made me wonder... you know, the internet allows people to be as petty as they like. So what's the most petty thing you've been dropped/dropped somebody over?

Well, I think defriending over DA spoilers is a little silly (though if she had said that if 'not everyone has seen it' was a bad argument because then no one could post specific stuff about anything ever on FB I would agree with her).

But I have defriended over politics because a) incessant politics is irritating and b) if they happen to be vastly different from mine then I feel a need to comment and make an argument for my side, and that's obnoxious on my part. I defriend so I can stay friends in that case.

All in all, I'm really picky about who I friend to begin with. No relatives and no strangers. I post stuff on my wall that I don't want certain people to see, and all this solves half of my problems.

[Yuki-Anne]

Well, the point is it JUST came out. It's like if someone had gone to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises and posted the significant details of the ending. Or if they posted, "Snape kills Dumbledore" right after The Half-Blood Prince came out. And she had had friends specifically ask her NOT to post spoilers, so really what she did was a jerk move.

[Atria35]

^ AH! That clarifies things a bit. And now lets you know how often I follow DA (I don't ^.^") So yes, her behavior was rather inappropriate.

[Yuki-Anne]

I don't really use Facebook for anything but stalking, er, keeping track of people I know. >_> I've dropped/unfriended someone over sending me too many game requests before, though (up to 35 each day @_@).

I think I've dropped friends over that, too. It's obnoxious. That was before you could block most games, you know, when you got a Farmville notification EVERY SINGLE TIME and you couldn't block it yet.

[SilverToast]

I technically dropped everyone on facebook,twitter,and google plus when I closed those accounts. hehe For me personally, I found that I didn't care for what anyone posted unless they told me in person or by email so all their posts seemed trivial and petty to me. I just use skype to stay in touch.

[Sheenar]

I unfriended someone once for consistent negative comments --she never posted anything encouraging/nice on my wall --always something nitpicking at me or condescending. I try to work things out with people first and then unfriend if things do not resolve at least to a un-tense status. I was unfriended by a long-time online friend for a reason I'm not sure of --it had something to do with me using my status updates to vent at times about things (most of the time, I don't really vent --most of the time my updates are about events, something funny that happened, something I learned at church/during Bible study, etc --but she apparently took offense that I at times needed to get things off my chest during times I had no one to talk to about things.)

I've found birthdays to be helpful in bringing to my attention people I haven't talked to in years but am still friends with on FB. I take that opportunity to unfriend those that I never talk to anymore.

[Nate]

I unfriended someone because while she and I got along okay despite our radically different political views, other friends of hers in the comments of her statuses would always take time to tell me how I was a horrible person and wasn't really a Christian. That got old pretty quick, so I just took her off so I wouldn't have to see them.

I have one friend who posts like 30 links to websites and stuff every day. I like him, he's a good guy, but I got tired of seeing a crapload of news articles and whatnot linked in my feed. I didn't remove him, but I did change my feed so that I only get posts marked "important" or whatever from him. It's cut down a lot on that stuff.

[Crossfire]

I unfriended someone due to an increase of 'swag'-related posts showing up on my wall, but that's pretty much it. Fortunately for me all of my close friends don't use Facebook that much... we prefer to use Skype n' such.

[blkmage]

most of my irl friends have unfollowed me from twitter because my usage is about an order of magnitude greater than theirs

my internet friends are stuck though because they have no other way of contacting me dohohohoho

[Sammy Boy]

Well, there's a friend on facebook that never replies to any of my messages to him (e.g. Hi [NAME], haven't seen you for a long time, how have you been?), so I just ignore him now, but maybe I should de-friend him and keep only friends that I really "know".

I also have a few atheist friends who like to make anti-Christian comments quite frequently. I am not bothered so much by the fact that they know I am a Christian (it doesn't bother me a lot that people disagree with my beliefs), or that they have anti-Christian views (that's their right), but more by the fact that they make certain assumptions without checking the facts (e.g. Christians have never made any meaningful contributions to science, etc.). I usually ignore such posts because I kinda feel "What's the point..."

[shooraijin]

Facebook has shallow people, film at 11.

[Cap'n Nick]

Facebook plus politics is decimating my relationships. I am not meant for the digital age, apparently.

[Makachop^^128]

I've unfriended someone because of games. the most petty I would say is exs or their exes yeah...haha kinda immature but oh well.

[ashfire]

The bad thing someone can do on Facebook is to flaunt something they have. My nephew for some reason had to show all the guns he bought to everyone he knows on Facebook. To me that is just a way to open himself to anyone that could find out where he lives and have them stolen. Another thing I think he is doing is pushing his political feelings. I have other Facebook friends that find all the political things that people post and post them every day. It has had me at times thinking I am tired of their views and have considered defriending them but one of these days they might see their wrongs.

[Yamamaya]

I find myself more likely to just block them from my news feed and block them from seeing my statuses if they consistently post annoying comments. I am pretty sure I have been blocked over politics before.

I find Facebook to be uniquely frustrating as it allows others to constantly flaunt their religious/political opinions and some use it as nothing more than a tool for that purpose and its incredibly annoying.

[mysngoeshere56]

I went through and deleted about 100+ people from my Facebook awhile back. It was because most of them were just random people I knew who either 1) never really cared about me and/or 2) were bullies to me at some point and never bothered changing their ways (I was mistreated a lot when I was in school, and it was a small school, so it spread). I figured, if we're not really "friends", why have Facebook make it look like we are? I've decided that now, people will either be 1) a positive influence over my life or 2) no influence at all.

[Mullet Death]

I keep thinking about deleting my Facebook entirely. Not like anyone would care or stop the presses, but I just never get around to actually doing it. But it's pretty much pettiness and and irrelevance all over the place because that's how the internet as a whole works, as you're all no doubt aware.