Odd mixed emotions - Facebook episode

[gratuitous]

I'm not much of a Facebook presence, but I like checking in on family and friends, some friends from oh-so-long ago. Some years ago and early on in my time on Facebook, I had an acquaintance from high school send me a friend request. I accepted it without much reflection, as the guy I knew back then was all right. Well, then I went to his Facebook page, and found that our interests had . . . diverged, shall we say. I went back and deleted him from my friends list.

He sent me a private message, noticing that I had accepted his request, then deleted him from my friends list. I could tell he was a bit hurt, and I felt bad about it. (Since then, I've gotten a little smarter about such things, using this episode as a learning experience.) He said it was no big thing, but I still felt bad. Just a couple of weeks later, I heard that he had died, and that sort of compounded my regret.

Flash forward to today, and damn if there isn't a post from this guy on another friend's page. He's alive after all. I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie; but I'm glad he's alive.

[leftieNanner]

1. I learned one thing about FB

Well, two.

First, I don't go on FB any more!

Second, I "unfollowed" people who posted toxic crap instead of "unfriending" them. Then you don't see their BS and they don't see you depart from their friend list. A woman I used to sing with was a friend and she "unfollowed" me. She is a Ted Cruz/Trump supporter and she didn't like my nasty liberal posts. I'm sure I don't miss her.

[regnaD kciN]

2. This is the right approach...

I’ve unfollowed lots of people rather than unfriending them.

OTOH, there was one friend from my teen years who I reconnected with, then unfriended me without explanation several years ago. I recently looked up his public posts, and it seemed he’d become a rabid Trumper, and maybe even a Qanon type.