Do you know what I hate most about social networking sites like Facebook? The people. They ruin everything.
No, seriously. I used to love using Facebook, although I can't exactly remember the last time when my enjoyment significantly outweighed my rage.
Also: Why social media fatigue is spreading[1]
Setting digital boundaries on Facebook and social networks is hard
Lately, I have been trying to set more boundaries on my social networking activities, but I have found it very difficult. I mostly limit my public posts to subjects about food and technology. If I post something that is going to be of a political nature or may push someone's buttons, it's set to friends-only. I err on the side of caution now.
In real life, we can detect the tone of someone's voice and read their facial expressions. These non-verbal cues help us decide if we should engage with someone or avoid them entirely. We also trust others to inform us which people are jerks, so we can choose to not associate with them. We have personal experience as well as other senses to inform us as well.
Online, there are certainly ways of limiting our interactions with people, such as creating "groups" of friends and then sharing out those posts to only groups that should see them.
But sorting people into groups is something that requires manual effort and is prone to error. The short-lived Google Plus had "Circles," which never really caught on, but I liked it much more than the way Facebook implements friend groupings.
Also: Americans abandoning mainstream social media for online forums[2]
We really know nothing about other people on Facebook
Although Facebook itself gathers a tremendous amount of