I’m on Facebook because as a largely housebound chronically ill person that is the most efficient way for me to socially connect with my far-flung friends, relations, colleagues and fellow believers in Christianity. Unfortunately, Facebook has a sort of society of oversharing that tends to get on my nerves. If I were to make one change to the site I would have a “Click To View” option added to photos. That way if I want to post pictures of my kidney stone or you want to post pictures of your foot surgery you can do so while still giving others the option to NOT see the picture. I personally have a fascination with medical things and don’t mind the bloody teeth, sutures and other things of that nature but I can see how if you’re at your desk eating your lunch and catching up on your news feed that it may be unwelcome.

The bigger problem, though, are the Outrage Shares. Folks see something that they think is horrific and automatically share it (post it for all THEIR friends to see) just so they can say “look at this awful thing! I’m outraged!” Thanks to Outrage Shares I’ve seen my share of abused animals, bloody and bruised little children and dead babies that are alleged to be aborted fetuses.

Each picture is horrific beyond imagining and is something I don’t want in my mind. Given the way Facebook is structured, however, there is literally no way to avoid seeing it unless you opt out of seeing all of a person’s photos. That means that I can’t see pictures of your kids, your cool cheesecake recipe, your birthday bouquet. I want to see those things that move my friends to photograph and share. I’m honoured that people would take the time to share a bit of their life with me. But I don’t want to see some five year old picture of frat kids doing awful things that has already been debunked a thousand times.

Last night some deeply deranged person posted a pornographic video of an adult and a very young child. If I were to see such a thing–Dear God, Please no….–I would maybe say “hey, I saw this awful thing and can’t stop vomiting and crying and vomit-crying.” But I would not, definitely NOT, post it for all my friends to have to see too. Unfortunately there are 30,000 Facebook users who have the IQ of a lettucewrap and DID pass the vile trash along. It took Facebook more than 8 hours to get the viral video cleared from their servers.

I really don’t understand the need to share horrible images just to take umbrage with them. It’s like saying “here! Taste This!” to everyone at breakfast as you pass them the carton of soured milk.
EDITED TO ADD:

I don’t usually mention this because I try to not mention it. But this is the place where it needs to be said that every time you share an instance of the latest tantrum from the Phelps Loon Collective you’re giving them exactly what they want. That’s an outrage share too and it’s both annoying and counter to your good intentions. Also, if you MUST refer to them, please stop calling them a Church. They call themselves a church; I could call myself Queen Of The Hazel-Eyed but that doesn’t make it so.

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