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I have a Facebook friend who apparently has a significant medical issue. She never has explained what is going on, which is of course her prerogative, but she regularly posts about going to the doctor, having (unexplained) medical procedures, and other things related to her condition. If someone asks what the issue is, she ignores it. Some people clearly do know more details - not that they mention them but in the way their posts are worded, it's clear they understand what she's referring to.
I have no problem with someone choosing to maintain their privacy but why post these half-way things without giving even a basic explanation to the people you are sharing with? If you want to discuss a condition with a limited number of people while using the convenience of Facebook, then use the privacy settings to create a grouping for those people so you can share these posts with the people you've chosen to share details about your condition.
The one-off things where people post "Think good things for me today" or whatever can be a little annoying if they never update to say what was going on. But this has been far more annoying, with pretty much daily posts by this person. And yes, I could just unfriend or unfollow her but then I wouldn't have a first world problem to post about here.
I completely agree. And the kicker is they get 50 people asking whats wrong. I post a funny kid story or kid or pet video. I might get 1 like. I think I am invisible. Thankfully I like FB because I use it as a timeline of my life and can go back when I want to view things.
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I agree. I have this one family member who does that, but it's more relationship issues. Cryptic stirring the turds crap. It's entertaining, actually, you never know who she's pissed off about now.
But I have this other acquaintance who thinks it's really really entertaining and mysterious to post things like, "anybody know how to identify a snakebite"? "Or oh no, on the way to the ER!" and then there's a flood of are you ok what happened etc., and she'll post the next day with what the mystery thing was, which was a big nothingball. On about the 3rd event like that, people posted "no", and "here we go again" to her plea for attention. It stopped.
I couldn't agree with you more that people should either give the basic details of what's going on, or just shut up. Keeping people guessing is an attention-seeking trick that should have been outgrown at age 15. I have a middle-aged Facebook friend who loves to do this. Recently she started a daily countdown: "10...", then the next day "9...", and coyly refused to say what she was counting down for. It must have been exciting for her to do this, but when the big reveal was that she was counting down the days until her husband returned from a business trip, it hardly made anyone else's day.
Anyway, with a health-related matter, the only good reason I can see for withholding information is to avoid unwanted medical advice. I can understand this to a certain extent, as when I had cancer some years ago, a few people I barely knew came out of the woodwork to send me articles about juicing and clinics in Mexico. Thanks, but my doctors and I had it under control. But really, if you aren't willing to satisfy reasonable curiosity, you shouldn't say anything publicly at all. It's unfair to leave people hanging like that.
I agree. I have this one family member who does that, but it's more relationship issues. Cryptic stirring the turds crap. It's entertaining, actually, you never know who she's pissed off about now.
But I have this other acquaintance who thinks it's really really entertaining and mysterious to post things like, "anybody know how to identify a snakebite"? "Or oh no, on the way to the ER!" and then there's a flood of are you ok what happened etc., and she'll post the next day with what the mystery thing was, which was a big nothingball. On about the 3rd event like that, people posted "no", and "here we go again" to her plea for attention. It stopped.
I really don't get it either.
I know a mom and two daughters, and I happen to be "friends" with them all. Daughter one was the teen mom, father of baby was killed when she was pregnant, married 3 times, and nothing ever goes right for her. Daughter two has had a very easy life, married HS sweetheart, big beautiful wedding, great career that she obtained without schooling, couple kids after the wedding. The mom or daughter 2 will post something nice. Daughter one will comment something like "Must be nice to be the favorite daughter", or "life is easy when you get everything easily". Drama Drama.
I couldn't agree with you more that people should either give the basic details of what's going on, or just shut up. Keeping people guessing is an attention-seeking trick that should have been outgrown at age 15. I have a middle-aged Facebook friend who loves to do this. Recently she started a daily countdown: "10...", then the next day "9...", and coyly refused to say what she was counting down for. It must have been exciting for her to do this, but when the big reveal was that she was counting down the days until her husband returned from a business trip, it hardly made anyone else's day.
Anyway, with a health-related matter, the only good reason I can see for withholding information is to avoid unwanted medical advice. I can understand this to a certain extent, as when I had cancer some years ago, a few people I barely knew came out of the woodwork to send me articles about juicing and clinics in Mexico. Thanks, but my doctors and I had it under control. But really, if you aren't willing to satisfy reasonable curiosity, you shouldn't say anything publicly at all. It's unfair to leave people hanging like that.
I completely agree, you are absolutely going to get wacko advice from someone (at least one someone probably more!) if you post about having a medical issue. In that case, I'd set up a facebook group where I could limit those posts to people I wanted to give more detailed updates to, but leave out the casual/non-real life acquaintances or anyone I knew would be problematic.
I hadn't noticed that, wonder if the temporary ban is still in place although I am certainly not outing anyone, just discussing an annoying activity that happens to take place on Facebook.
Perhaps this post could be edited by the moderator to change it to "Why do people post cryptic things on social media?" since the Facebook aspect isn't really relevant.
Everyone, please read the forum rules set forth in the Sticky thread. Threads about social media are not permitted. This one is now closed. ,
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