No doubt, the worst offenders are the political bullshit share whores. Listen, it doesn't matter which side of the aisle you sit on, or if you're even in the building. Both parties have their line toters. But the ones that make me nuts are the ones who share every. single. one. It's like they don't even read them. The memes and snarky comments and gifs, the share whores click and I don't even think they read them half the time. People comment and all they can do is respond with more memes, like the one that says "Just because I don't agree with you, doesn't mean I hate you." Most of them won't engage in meaningful discourse at all. They don't want to have intelligent exchange, they just want to click and share and clog up the FB feed. Ugh!
Next up, and don't think I'm mean, but do you have a friend who shares every recipe s/he comes across? I mean everyone they see. Admittedly, some of them look good, but half of them are one ingredient away from the next one. Lots of them are probably things that sound and look good to them, but I see them and think, really? Tell the truth, don't you see at least half a dozen a day that make you think, people need a recipe to make that? Here's a tip, and I mean this kindly because some people just may not know: There is a save option in FB. You can save recipes to a sort of folder (where groups, pages, events, etc. are) that will keep all the Tasty videos you want for future reference. You can also save articles and recipes there. Gone are the days when you have to post it and comment: "Saving for later."
Another one I think we can all come together on is this one: the "share if" share whores. You know these well. Share if you hate cancer. Share if you really care about me. Share so I can get 3 million likes to teach a lesson. Share if you're brave enough, smart enough, faithful enough to G-d. If a post starts with something like, "I bet most of you won't share this..." guaranteed, I'm in the most category. I won't share it. So you're right, bet a million dollars I won't share it, because you are guaranteed to win, and I promise not to ask you for money.
Finally, and I say this with care and kindness, if you are still sharing posts by companies who are raffling, auctioning, giving away, gifting, you are a sucker. Delta is not giving away free airline tickets. Publix isn't giving away $100 gift certificates, and no car dealership is giving away a car to anyone on Facebook. Stop clogging up our news feeds! I know people think, "Why not? You never know." But the thing is, we do know. They aren't giving away free shit, and all you're doing is providing them with data. Most of these are ploys to mine data about at best, your shopping and internet habits, and at worst your personal information and friends list. I know we've all heard the old saying, If it's too good to be true, it probably is. If you haven't heard that one, how about Nothing ever comes for free."
There's an easy way to stop share whoring. Before you click share, ask yourself a couple of questions:
- Am I posting this for me or for other people?
- Is this something to share or save? (There's another option for saving.)
- If someone wants to ask me about my share, am I willing and able to have an exchange with someone about it?
- Where might have the share originated and for what purpose?
I'm not trying to sound like the self-appointed social media police. I'm just trying to make the cruising experience a little more pleasant for all of us. Consider it a public service announcement.
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