How to avoid Facebook fights

I opened my MacBook this morning and did what I do every morning, log onto Facebook.

This morning I scrolled through the comments about what a great season KU had despite the loss to Kentucky in the championship game. But among those positive comments there was one person speaking ill of KU fans that really angered me. I could feel my blood start to boil as I scrolled down the page.

I couldn’t help but wonder, why do these Facebook status updates incite me so much?

And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Just last week one of my friends told me someone called her a name on Facebook after she responded to a political status update.

Facebook can bring out the best of us in our status updates- inspirational quotes, pictures of cats, invites to see local band play. But the social network can also bring out the worst, and with a presidential election season looming, I worry the worst is yet to come.

Here are my tips for how to deal with FB status updates that get under your skin.

1. Hide comments from common offenders. If someone is posting divisive comments, whether religious, political, or with regards to NCAA teams, don’t be afraid to hide their comments from your Facebook feeds. The person won’t know unless you tell them, so no feelings will be hurt in this process and your blood pressure might be lowered.

2. Don’t engage FB friends who want to pick fights. We’ve all seen these updates from people on all sides of every issue. They go something like this, “So you don’t wanna drill, guess you must want $5 a gallon gas prices AND hate Christmas.” Do not respond to these people. No matter how much you want to, just don’t.

3. Re-evaluate your purpose on Facebook. Facebook has so many purposes in our life these days, both professionally and personally. If you don’t use Facebook for professional uses, I recommended scaling down your friend list to only those people you would want to have dinner with. I call this the Lisa Rule, because my friend Lisa told it to me. If you do use the same Facebook account for personal and professional use, see tip number one.

Hope these tips help you as navigate through Facebook during another presidential election, and what could be a very tense season of Dancing with the Stars. Happy posting.