The 5 Most Annoying Aspects of Social Media

Social media can be such a great way to connect and share with family and friends, especially when you live far away. But let's face it, social media can be annoying. Here are the 5 most annoying aspects:

1. People who troll around just trying to collect more followers or friends. I see this most on Instagram. A stranger will start following me and if I start following in return they will stop following me - that way they always have more followers than people they follow. It increases their Klout Score and it makes me mad. I now keep track of all strangers who start following me so I can stop following anyone who practices this behavior. 
2. Facebook has started clogging up my news feed with posts from complete strangers. I'll be scrolling down and enjoying articles my friends have shared and pictures of their adventures and suddenly I'm looking at some random kids. Why? Because now it seems every time one of my friends likes or comments on something from one of their friends it shows up on my news feed. I don't know these people. We are not mutual friends. I don't want to see random posts from complete strangers just because one of my friends liked it. It's a waste of my time and I HATE that I can't find a way to eliminate it from my news feed.
3. Random strangers being hateful and mean when commenting. I haven't run into much of this personally but I see it happening to my friends, fellow migraineurs and in the news. People without any empathy, any understanding of the facts and with no reason whatsoever attacking another human being - unfathomable. I have a strict No-Being-Mean policy on my facebook page and the comment section of my blog. But with Twitter and Instagram there is no way to oversee or manage what is being said. I think if people started getting nasty I would close my account. The stress of that just wouldn't be worth it. 
4. Twitter comments scrolling across the screen during TV shows, or worse, being read on-air during a news broadcast. I have never cared, nor will I ever care, what some random person with a twitter account has to say about a show or a news story. If I wanted to find out what people were saying about something I would go on Twitter and look up the hashtag myself. I have my own opinions and thoughts. While I may be interested in hearing what friends or qualified professionals have to say on specific topics, I don't find any value in broadcasting the quick reaction of unverified people via Twitter. 
5. Anything that gives away location information. Okay, so this isn't so much annoying as it is dangerous. Every time someone announces they are leaving for a vacation, or checks in at a restaurant, resort or wherever I cringe. Basically I see this as a public announcement that you are away from home - nobody is home - now is the ideal time to rob you. It might never happen but why open the door to that possibility? The better announcement is when you have just returned home from a wonderful vacation or from the fab new restaurant.

Still, I do love connecting with people on social media, especially Instagram, so I guess putting up up with these and other annoyances is just part of it.