Social-network users have many reasons to hide, block and unfriend their friends and followers. Since its establishment in 2004, Facebook has rapidly increased users from a few friends of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to 2 billion monthly active users in June 2017.
However, not all social-network users are happy with comments about their postings. As a 10-year Facebook user, I have unfriended, hidden and blocked numerous "friends" for several reasons. So have my friends, who complain about problems similar to mine.
Facebook is a platform of diversity. And there are a lot of scenarios that might make or break relationships.
People unfriend or unfollow others on Facebook and Instagram partly due to lack of communication. From time to time, people announce their intent to unfriend strangers or friends of friends, who have never or hardly communicated with them since they accepted their friendship. Those who reach the maximum of 5,000 friends have to unfriend acquaintances to make space for new ones. I clean my friends list once a year by focusing on strangers and acquaintances who post nothing or never react to my postings.
Facebook also often sees scenarios which involve rude, improper, intimate, pessimistic or racist postings and hate speeches. Some people intend to be rude with jokes or sarcasm. For many, racist comments and hate speech, as well as postings which can cause political and religious conflicts and unrest, should not be tolerated. Many times Facebook users choose to simply unfriend those people.
A clear example is my decision to unfriend a former university classmate, who posted a status wrongly accusing an organisation of supporting the Red Shirts. She misunderstood and ignored the fact that the agency was neutral and was a target of attacks by the Red Shirts in 2010. After she turned a deaf ear to my explanation and request for her to delete her hostile status, I promptly unfriended her on Facebook and also in real life.
Another unpleasant thing to experience on Facebook is being mass-tagged by those soliciting money. Tagging fewer than 10 people who are family and close friends with their consent is acceptable. In contrast, tagging almost 100 people in attempts to advertise goods, show off silly photos or seek donations is a terrible idea. Posting embarrassing photos of others and tagging people to draw their attention to these pictures says a lot about the posters.
Extremely unacceptable cases include those oversharing their intimate information and pictures, such as selfies in revealing outfits, half-naked or making out with lovers. In addition, some like to embarrass their families, friends and colleagues by reprimanding or condemning them and tagging other people to be witnesses, although the problems should have been discussed privately.
Social-network users have the right to show off their lifestyles, luxuries, lovers, spouses or children, but they have no right to insult people who are different from them. People have every right to be proud of themselves and their families, but they must respect other people, accept them the way they are and avoid judgement.
Recently, a friend of mine unfriended a mother, who was so proud of her intelligent daughter that she took to insulting girls who care about their looks. That mother posted a status saying her daughter is an outstanding student, has natural good looks and is better than many girls her age, who wear beautiful outfits and make-up. My friend, who has a pretty daughter who is a good student and sells clothes for a living by posing as a model, argued that children have their own style and parents should respect their decisions.
Social-network users should think carefully before posting their statuses, comments and photos. If they post first and think later, they may regret it forever. Even after they delete their posts, many people can still search for their postings through cache files or other people's comments.
Posters are responsible for whatever they post, especially impolite, obscene, inappropriate, offensive, insulting and shameful things that can cause trouble.
Pichaya Svasti is a travel and feature writer for Life section of The Bangkok Post.