Do you block people from your Facebook feed?

[Anonymous]

If so, why do you not just unfriend them?

I'm not talking about classifying people as members of groups and posting some messages just for a smaller group of people. Although, if *all* or even most of your status updates only go to a small group, what is the point of having any of the other people as your FB friends?

I am just trying to think this over for myself in terms of keeping or getting rid of FB friends who I might not want to see my status updates, and because there are 1 or 2 people I am pretty sure (one I am sure because I saw something on the ticker yesterday) have blocked me from their feed and I was like, why not just unfriend me if you don't want me to see your status updates?

Thoughts?

P.S. Please don't tell me this is a first world problem or that I have too much time on my hands or that I'm overthinking it or that I can delete my Facebook account if I don't like it. I know all that. Just looking for thoughts on how others deal with this issue. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I do this because I don't want people asking to keep adding me again over and over again so I just accept them and place them in the ignore list.

Much easier and less annoying.

[Anonymous]

I've blocked 2 people from my feed. It is not the fact that they constantly update their status, but it is the types of things they write and post about that I find annoying, and have actually led me to think less of them. 90% of the time, their posts were things that made me feel bad for them and the fact that they were broadcasting this stuff for everyone to see. (for instance wife once posted a long rant about debt collectors calling). I did not defriend because the wife would be the type of person to make a huge scene about it and blow it out of proportion. FWIW, we only see this couple MAYBE once every 3 months and they are only mutual friends so I don't feel too guilty about blocking them.

[Anonymous]

I had to block my sister from my feed. I love her, despite the fact that she is a misanthropic, racist with pro-guns and pro-life views (the way she talks makes the two incompatible). It raises my blood pressure to read what she thinks. Obviously, it would create a problem if I unfriended her.

[Anonymous]

13:52 - just wanted to say I loved your P.S. OP! Thank you, you made my day. I am SO tired of the bullies who have nothing but meaningless snark. They tell the world how meaningless they are to everyone else by doing so. So, thanks.

[Anonymous]

ALL THE TIME, and it's because I don't want to hurt their feelings when they see we're not friends (or have to explain to them WHY we're not friends when they re-request) but I just don't want to hear their shit! Some people do nothing but complain and I don't want to see it, some people just play games and I get a billion Farmville updates that I don't care about, some do nothing but talk about being Jesus's wife and how pro-lifers are awful and GO SANTORUM. I don't want to rock any boats by defriending people (which tends to make people feel self conscious and wonder what they did) but nor do I necessarily care to see what some of them have to say. So I just hide them and then they're out of sight, out of mind.

[Anonymous]

I flat out de-friended two of my long term friends. They both asked me why and what the hell my problem is. I simply said "you have a right to post whatever you want, but I have a right to not read the crap you post." I'd tell them the same if they were saying this stuff to me face to face (which somehow I don't think they would do), so why not on facebook.

[Anonymous]

Pretty much what everyone else has said. One person from h.s. has extreme political views and posts CONSTANTLY about every little nuance of every little political occurrence. I blocked him. Another girl from h.s. just posts every little second about every little thing that pops into her head; it's total verbal diarrhea. So I blocked her. People like that. I won't go so far as to unfriend them b/c we have a lot of old friends in common and I am generally interested in seeing what they're up to, every once in a while, but now I can just click on their page whenever I want to, and not be assaulted by their ramblings all day long on my feed, while I am at work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do this because I don't want people asking to keep adding me again over and over again so I just accept them and place them in the ignore list.

Much easier and less annoying.

This.

[Anonymous]

How would someone know if you block them from your feed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would someone know if you block them from your feed?

they don't.

[Anonymous]

What is the difference between unsubscribing/blocking (I assume by hitting report/block? and what if I don't want to report them?)/unfriending?


I have a few people from High School who post constantly. I don't want to read what they have to say (pretty much ever) since we weren't good friends twenty years ago and they prattle on about nothing, but I don't care if they see my very infrequent posts and I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings by unfriending them or have it so they couldn't message me if they were coming to town or something.

[Anonymous]

I recently blocked someone. She puts here entire life on FB. She acts like a sorority girl. She is shallow and bugs the crap out of me.

[Anonymous]

There are a few people that I have hidden from my new feed. It's not really about blocking them, they can see my posts, or that I don't want to be "friends" with them. But some people just post constant negativity or drama and it's not really what I want to read. By hiding them from my feed, I don't have to make this a big issue and unfriend them, but I also don't have to read about their drama everyday.

[Anonymous]

I do not block them. I classify them as acquaintances and they never show up in my feed. If one of my friends (actually classified as such) comments on something an acquaintance posts I might see that (which I wouldn't if they were blocked). I've enjoyed facebook more since I only see actual friend posts.