7 Sins of Facebook

So, I wrote a blog post this morning and decided against hitting “publish.” It was too long, too serious, and I honestly bummed myself out a little. Let’s try this again and get straight to the point.

People are harshing my mellow, man.

There’s far too much douche-baggery going on over on people’s Facebook pages. Reading my feed is bringing me down on a daily basis. There are days when I just can’t face it, and I avoid looking. This, of course, means I miss the happy stuff, the silly stuff, the genuine cries for help from friends who are in a tough spot.

I’m a firm believer that the positive should outweigh the negative whenever possible. There’s always a bright side, even if we can’t see it right away. Positive thoughts create good things, and a constant stream of negative thoughts draws ugliness.

Are you dwelling on ugliness? Here’s a short list to help you decide if maybe your Facebook statuses are making me (and possibly other people) want to gouge out my eyeballs with a soup spoon:

Your status each day (though sometimes amusing) is a commentary on how all the people around you are stupid/assholes/annoying/some other insult. If this happens to you every single day, maybe they aren’t the problem.
You post five or more articles a day on the same hot button topic. I know you’re fighting to save the world. I appreciate that. I even read the occasional article. But over the course of time, the amount of information reaches critical mass. I am desensitized to your subject.
Your posts and articles are always angry about something. Seriously. Lighten up. You can’t possibly be that mad about that many things. If you are, there’s an underlying problem. What are you really angry about?
You share outrageous, reactionary “news” articles meant to rile everybody up, but fail to fact check or even double check where your article came from.
You post pictures of sick/abused/malnourished/deformed/dead animals or children. (This, by the way, is where I draw the line and start hiding your posts. Seriously. What the hell is wrong with you?)
Your status on your wall is an apology or demand for an apology directed at some anonymous figure who “knows who he is.”
You leave mysterious statuses about how things aren’t going well, something bad happened, somebody hurt your feelings, etc., in a clear plea for someone to ask you what’s wrong, then refuse to talk about it. You put it out there. In public. If you don’t want to talk about it, don’t start the conversation. What are we, twelve?

Okay. So, I still wrote the post. And I’m well aware that it’s negative in exactly the same way I’m bitching about. But it’s a one-off. And that’s kind of what I’m getting at here.

Everybody has a bad day, but if every day is bad, maybe the problem is how you’re looking at the world. Take a look at your Facebook and Twitter feeds.

If your posts are more negative than positive, well, I’m probably ignoring you.