Have you unfriended family?
As over a third of youngsters have unfriended a family member from Facebook, so we discuss what befalls us if we expose ourselves to everyone, which includes those nearest and dearest to us on Facebook!
Parents are those who get the brunt of this trend with a huge 47% of young people refusing to add their parents on to their list of Facebook friends. This however does also extend to grandparents and aunts or uncles and cousins. Potentially the world has access to these pictures so even if they are not on show to your parents via Facebook that doesn’t stop your friends pulling it up on their phone, printing it out or them simply typing in your name on Google, so why do we feel that this a foolproof plan to keep our secret hidden and our modesty in tact?
As a rule of thumb 4% would not contemplate adding on any of their relatives even if they were distant due to the Facebook fear. We talked to a spokesperson from Net Voucher Codes.co.uk about the anxiety that Facebook brings to our lives; ‘A paranoid fifth of the young people, 21%, believed their parents deliberately used Facebook to snoop on them and keep an eye on what they got up to in their social lives.’
But could the paranoia be linked to how much Facebook stalking we do? A lot of anxiety arises from our own behaviors, so when when know that we Facebook stalk our friends the likelihood is that our paranoias are not that unjustified when it comes to our families.
So I ask if this deep routed fear arises from our families knowing about our every move, then why do we add them in the first place and put ourselves in the very uncomfortable position of having to delete them from our friend lists? The Spokesperson added: ‘As a result, nearly eight in 10 young people, 78%, said they would feel constrained over how they used the site if they were connected to other family members.’
Family members can be our first friends on Facebook as we join and build up our list of real and fake mates on there and keeps you in the loop with any family stuff that is happening. You can guarantee they will always wish you ‘Happy Birthday’ and like all of your statuses so it seems appropriate from the outset- that is until you go out with your mates or have a bad day- that is when things get tricky!
Facebook is a vessel of fun, for swearing, for posting and sharing things that are not the perfect topics of conversation when gran comes over. Suddenly finding yourself having to vet every post and second guess every comment can be taxing, especially when it’s something that is supposed to take up seconds of your time normally.
It could be argued that if we don’t want it broadcast over Facebook then we shouldn’t be doing it- but life is not fun if you follow this rule. So many of our friends thrive on taking pictures of us at our worst and despite the begging and the pleading on the night out that they don't post anything of you- it still happens! Some of them are sober enough to do it while you are out- those are the biggest jerks because at that point a: you might now know, b: be too obliterated to understand what is happening or c: simply don’t care because, let’s face it, who does after a skin full?
In years gone by if people remembered to take out their cameras, you at least had the option of tearing up a bad picture, or hiding it, but now a simple ‘untag’ means that between the time it was posted and the time it has taken you to find it on your feed, everyone on your timeline has probably caught a glimpse of it!
It may be off your page, but it’s still out there on someone else’s! This means only one thing; that you stick like glue to your Facebook page for the day after your big night out waiting for that picture to surface or wait for the onslaught!
Like affairs, indiscretions usually resurface so even for the most careful of people- your dirty little secrets will come back to haunt you- Facebook or no Facebook! There is always a story teller among your mates who annoyingly remembers everything you ever did that shamed you! Unfriending is a temporary measure not a permanent solution!