Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Brave New World of Facebook

So, Facebook just suggested my Supposed Former Wife as someone I might know. Apparently we have nine friends in common. I'm a little surprised that we don't have more.

Also, I managed not to snort coffee out of my nose when I saw that.

Computer programs are brilliantly stupid. They do exactly what they're designed to do, no more and no less. By FB's estimation, we're an excellent match: plenty of friends in common, very likely to know each other already. FB has no way of evaluating when its suggestions might be really freakin' awkward.

To be fair, I'm not especially bothered. We parted on relatively good terms, at least in the context of, y'know, a divorce. But let's face it: I'm not going to try to friend my Supposed Former Wife. For anyone who doesn't already understand why, well... I don't think I can express it any better than this:


Warning: Not safe for work, obviously - kinda harsh language.

5 comments:

  1. When my ex husband and I divorced I defriended him on facebook. Not because I hate him or to be mean - I just didn't think I needed to know what he was doing and vice versa. But we have like 150 friends in common so that pops up on my sidebar quite frequently. I get the same, well that's awkward, feeling every time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder if Facebook has a "knock it off" option for things like this? To be honest, I've never looked.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think there's a "knock it off" option, but it knocks it off for all the suggested friends, not just the one you want to buzz off.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have a love hate relationship with facebook. I don't know about yours but mine tends to remind me of the clicks in high school. People get offended for what you post and offend for deleting and offended if you don't add them. I check mine every day, multiple times a day, but I've not posted anything in a while. Also adding your family members is probably the worse possible idea ever they tend to get all uptight about it as well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm on Facebook mainly to keep in touch with some people that would be wildly inconvenient otherwise - a friend in Australia, for example.

    I've only had one really dramatic FB-related blowup, and that was from someone who... well, let's say that he's a bit prone to melodrama under the best of circumstances. But I don't have a lot of family on it, and anyway my family's pretty laid back.

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to leave comments; it lets me know that people are actually reading my blog. Interesting tangents and topic drift just add flavor. Linking to your own stuff is fine, as long as it's at least loosely relevant. Be civil, and have fun!