Sunday, April 08, 2012

Every so often I see some petition for a "dislike" button on Facebook

but I really think an "acknowledge" button would be way more useful.

Let's be real here - it would probably be pretty generous to say that at least half of your "friends" on Facebook are barely acquaintances - they aren't in your phone, they're probably not even people you would be pleasantly surprised to see somewhere in public, and yet we choose to constantly share these bits of our lives that range from the mundane* to major (marriage, birth).

Sometimes, those major status updates aren't happy - if someone posts a real bummer of an update (cat died, grandma entered rehab for a cocaine addiction, newly-paid-off car crushed by an out-of-control ice cream truck) and that person isn't someone I consider a close friend or even a friend at all, I don't want to leave a comment because that's way too friend-y (and I'm also terrible at posting genuine, non-sarcastic comments), and I look like an asshole** if I hit the "like" button.

Hitting an "acknowledge" button says "You posted something and I saw it" and, to be completely honest, that's usually about as much as I want to contribute to the situation.




 * Let me just say - no one fucking cares that you can't decide whether to get McDonald's or Burger King for lunch or that you're watching some tv show at the same time 347 other people are or that you're "checking in" at Walgreens. And I'm sure your kid says super funny stuff all the time, but you don't have to quote every fucking thing he or she says. I've said it before, I'll say it again - absolutely no one is as interested in your life as you think they are - it's perfectly okay to keep some stuff to yourself.

** admittedly, I'm kind of an asshole, but clearly this person and all of their other "friends" don't need to know that

Labels: I'm a jackass