Facebook is no place for sarcasm. No place is safe these contentious days after a change in administration, marches and genuine dislike for anyone (even friends) who believe something you don’t believe.
Have you ticked off that kid from the 7th grade you barely knew but now see her posts about Trump every single day? I mean anytime you gather up the nerve to make a comment or post about politics, religion or college football you’re bound to make someone mad and before you know it, you’re sparring back and forth with someone and taking some of the fun out of what Facebook should be.
I know I am. Sarcastic humor or any attempt at it fails miserably online.
You can avoid the drama AND still post your political rants by making a tweak to your list of Facebook friends.
Facebook has a very cool feature not many people know about that allows you to post only to a list of specific friends. You can find it the Facebook homepage where you are logged in.
See it there in the left panel where it says “Friend Lists”? That’s it.
Click there and you’ll see some lists Facebook set up for you already such as Acquaintances, Family, and Close Friends. You also have the option to create your own lists which is perfect for this offensive avoidance.
Select “create list” and name it what you want. It could be Liberals or Conservatives, it might be ‘easily offended’ which is what I’ve chosen for those friends who want to make something of everything I post.
The next step takes some time if you have a lot of Facebook friends. You must go back to your profile and select the Friends tab just beneath your cover photo. Beside their picture is tab that shows your relationship. For nearly everyone it will show “Friends” but if you click on that box you’ll see options to add their name to a list. Choose the list you created just for them.
Then the next time you post something you know is going to get them going, you can avoid the drama by changing the privacy setting.
I don’t want this to sound difficult because it isn’t, really. In the box where you type out your post there’s a blue tab that shows who you’re posting to. By default it is “public” and you’ll see a globe next to it. Click on the down arrow to select only friends, friends of friends OR there’s a “more options” option.
This is where you narrow down who will see the post.
For instance, if you are just dying to post something political but you don’t want to someone to react negatively to it, choose the “custom” option to be taken to a custom privacy page.
Seriously, this is not difficult or time consuming.
You can share the post with a list of friends, or choose to share it with everyone except a list of friends.
Say you want to put up a smart aleck post you know will tick off some of your more sensitive ‘friends’, post it to everyone except those people you’ve put on the ‘easily offended’ list.
They’ll continue seeing all of your other posts but they won’t see the posts you don’t want them to see.
You might want to do it. The next 4 years of Trump/anti-Trump talk will take its toll.