One thing that all college students of the 21st century have in common is that we all have at least one weird relative who follows us on some sort of social media account. In an ideal world, we could just block them or decide not to accept their friend request. However, this action usually leads to a phone call about how they are hurt that you don’t want them to know what’s going on in your life, or they are suspicious that you are hiding something from them. So, we are pretty much forced to deal with a variety of annoyances.
The first type of relative you’ll find on social media is the shady stalker. You may think that they are not paying close attention to what pictures you get tagged in… but they are. Have you ever had an aunt call you out at a family dinner for “looking like you’ve had too much to drink in some of your pictures on Facebook”? Or, have you ever had your grandpa make an assumption that you have a boyfriend solely because you get tagged in a picture with your best guy friend? I didn’t think that my mom knew how to use Facebook, and I did not think that she was paying attention to the pictures I got tagged in. However, I was shocked to find pictures from my timeline dragged onto her desktop.
The second type of relative is the excessive liker. Everyone has that weird older relative who likes every single picture you are tagged in on Facebook. This can become a problem when this relative likes the wrong picture. For example, you get tagged in a picture with a boy that you are more than friends with, but things are still awkward. Then, you get a notification that your aunt Suzan liked the picture. Will he think that you are telling your family about him? Did aunt Suzan just make things awkward between you and that boy?
The last and most annoying relative is the one who feels the need to post everything and anything on their Facebook timeline. I don’t mean pictures from vacation, but I mean essays and essays about every thought they ever have. These posts can range from political opinions to a paragraph about how much they love their dog. These posts start clouding your timeline and make you want to go absolutely insane!
So, what should we do about these annoying relatives on social media? Do we de-friend them? Do we pretend like we never got their friend request in the first place? I think we should just be honest with our relatives about how they are abusing their social media rights and teach them the proper social media etiquette.
Sheetal Tadiparty
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