Facebook ... ugh.

[plonq]

It seems the latest game is to go through and audit one's friends, looking for things they might have liked in the past that don't mesh with one's current views.

A couple of folks now have expressed concern that their "friends" liked an individual in the past who has since expressed views that make it politically inexpedient to like them now.¹

People are literally digging through their friends' history to look for things by which they can be offended.

Their posts passively convey a threat of, "If you don't go and remove that then maybe we need to rethink our friendship..."

I don't think I ever "liked" this individual of interest, but I can't be bothered to go through my history to check. Having "liked" this individual in the past would not translate to any kind of current support. A mouse click in the past is not the equivalent of erecting an Confederate statue on one's front lawn.

I refuse do sanitize my history. I am not proud of some of it, and there are a lot of things that I once embraced that I no longer do now but I won't deny them.

And I won't erase them to spare somebody offence, not when they have to actively dig to find them.

Seriously, folks, get a grip. There are enough appalling things happening around us right now. There's no need to go trawling for triggers.

¹I am intentionally being vague so as not to call out any individuals.

Comments

[aurifer]

Honestly, thank you for being reasonable. It seems like we've got way more children on social sites, and so high-school politics are coming into it. The baffling part is that it's seeping up the chain to people in their 20s. Maybe those who feel a strong urge to conform?

[frith]

Human nature and proclivities come in many flavours. The more we embrace what we have in common and the less we claim a nigh divine high ground, the more we can function as a society.