Whatever your style, stay safe on Facebook

I’m not prolific on Facebook, but I am on it and I post occasionally. My posts are often about humor, history, achievements (alas, not many of those) and travel (not much of that lately). People have definite Facebook personalities, and sometimes they don’t jive with their non-virtual personalities. They reveal considerable anger on FB, and this is usually associated with politics.

Yet some of my friends who come across as spiteful on FB are the nicest people you’d ever want to meet in person. You can’t tell if they support Trump, Biden, Bernie or Genghis Khan.

Some people treat FB as their own tabloid. Everything you want to know – or not know – is there for all to see.

I see less of that these days. A lot of people limit their postings to family fun or pets. That’s smart. They’re guaranteed to get Likes. Posting photos of grandkids always works too. I’m not there yet. Too many post pictures of food. As a skinny guy who’s a notoriously finicky eater, I practically regurgitate at that. I have friends who almost never post but will comment on others’ posts. Usually those comments are good-natured and complimentary. I aspire to be more like them.

I have a few phantom friends. They appear and disappear. Have they been kidnapped? Ensconced in a Three Stooges marathon? There are many serial posters. They’re posting all the time. I worry about those people. Don’t they have more constructive things to do?

Some people are very narrow in their FB offerings. I have a cousin who only posts about cars. Posting about the weather is popular, but some take it too far. I don’t need to be reminded how cold it is in Minnesota. I grew up there. That’s why I’m in Yuma now. The posts that irritate me the most are those that dare you to share something but bet that you won’t. They’re often political, but not always. This seems to be a style favored by my older FB friends.

Whatever your style, stay safe out there. I’ll see you on Facebook.

MEL PARKER

Yuma