I have unfollowed (but no deleted) a lot of friends who post highly personal,
TMI (too much information), or angry rant like posts on Facebook. I follow a lot of celebrities, companies who
sell products I like, and fan based pages.
While going through my Facebook timeline, I noticed that most of the
posts I read were not from people, but from these companies I liked. Those posts that were from people I knew
tended to focus on movies, books, food, pets, social & political issues and
travelling.
J is an American friend who posts a lot about politics, her
favourite shows/books/movies, her daughter, and cats. She has a little girl who just recently
started school, and is often talking about her frustrations with the educational
system. The video she shared was of
University students in the States and how little they knew about their own
history.
D is a social media expert and a lover of all things
geeky. Her posts tend to focus around
her job as a social media manager, pictures of her pets, and fan videos, fandom
memes, gif sets and more. In this case,
she’s posting a ‘spoiler’ about the recently released Star Wars video and
saying she’s ‘sorry, not sorry’ because the movie has been out for a long
enough time now. She really, really
loves geek culture, is a huge gamer, and often speaks out about sexism in
gaming culture.
M was a friend from high school. She’s posted a photo of herself in an outfit
to match the era of “Pride, Prejudice & Zombies.” With her is someone else who is dressed like
a zombie. M is a huge fan of books and geek
culture as well. She has said she is
very excited to see the movie, and I’m assuming she and her friend are headed
to watch it in full costume.
L is interested in attending the Silver Millennium Masquerade
Ball. Without clicking on this, I assume
it has something to do with Sailor Moon.
I remember that she really loved that show as a kid (and still does now)
as she recently posted about a gift she had received from a friend that was
Sailor Moon Themed.
I don’t know J very well anymore, but she keeps showing up
on my newsfeed because of the news articles and funny posts she makes. I could not tell you what she is up to her
life, but I know posts a lot about sexism, racism and equality.
The last time I saw J2 was in University. We were in the same program and worked
together, so when we saw each other outside of class or work, it was usually at
a party. These days he is focused on his
marriage, his job as a teacher, and his new born daughter, who he is currently
trying to find a new carrier for.
I have not seen A since high school, but I know he recently
left one job to start a new career, he lives with his girlfriend who he seems
to really love, and has an adorable cat who he is constantly posting photos and
videos of.
Sometimes, the most random things end up on my timeline. But that's to be expected when you follow Tumblr.
The posts I see are
all picked out because of the accounts I interact with most often. so they also reflect my own interests. There are many users I’m ‘Friends’ with who I
never see on my timeline anymore, and anyone who starts posting things that are
essentially overshare, I end up blocking.
More than updates from my friends, were posts from pages I’ve
liked. Corruption and policy brutality news
reports, PSAs against drinking and driving, posts from George Takei, recipes (mostly
from Buzzfeed and Tasty), and post that a breaking down the current Republican
and Democratic debates.
Cara, I found it really interesting that most of your news feed is made up of companies that you follow. I wonder when you joined Facebook? I joined in 2007 (almost 10 years, yikes!) and I feel like back then there weren't really a lot of companies to follow, it was only my friends and family. I wonder how different a Facebook user's experience is depending on when they joined, and who they follow in terms of friends vs companies and additional outside content. Looking at the pages I've liked/companies I follow, it's only related to my friends (my NZ friend has a news segment I like, my photographer friend has a website I like, my girlfriend sells kid's clothes and I like her site) but as far as companies, I've never followed them or liked them. What do you think?
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