Sunday, November 09, 2008

Facebook frenemies

Jezebel has an interesting post on finding out via someone changing their Facebook status that they hold completely different political views from you.

Sure, it seems silly, but I find it a fascinating little look at a little part of the online experience. These are people who you may not be close enough for them to email you their political beliefs, but to see them in black-and-white may be something you can shrug off, or may really get your goat.

3 comments:

Linda said...

It was really interesting to me that Jezebel talked about this, because I had this experience once this election season. It's not that people are Republicans -- plenty of good pals of mine from my old political-work days are Republicans; plenty of good folks voted differently than I did. But there's someone who's kind of dear to me, who wrote some things in her Facebook updates that just really hurt to read...things of the "who's a real American versus who's a scary socialist Other" variety. It really felt like a knife in the heart; I took it very hard.

Anonymous said...

Totally true. I "de-friended" someone because of what I saw one day.

Anonymous said...

Facebook on election night was eye-opening. People were leaving status updates about the election results. Things got heated, and I heard some folks were "un-friended" as a result. It was wild.