I have many friends on Facebook. They come from all over the world and from all walks of life. Naturally, they post all types of things. From annoying baby stuff (like me, sorry everyone) to serious blogs or political posts. While I spend most of my day chasing around a near two year old, I try to read most of them (well, maybe not all the blogs, but the personal posts) and I have yet to delete a friend just because of their views on something. Don't misunderstand; I have deleted people in the past, but never just because they said something I didn't agree with.
So, whenever I see a person I consider a friend finish a post with something along the lines of, "If you don't like it, there's the door," it upsets me. I understand the intent is to head off arguments or nasty notes, but I notice a lot of people, soon after a post like that, post again, very upset over the response they received, despite the disclaimer.
As far as I know, no one's mind has been changed by a Facebook post regarding anything: social, political, economical, nutritional, or otherwise. Your post won't make me see the light. By saying I can defriend you if I don't like something you believe is basically saying my friendship is less important to you than your thoughts on whatever issue you are posting about.
The people on my list are there because I want them there. I like them. I like seeing what they have to say. For a post to be so callous in sloughing off disagreements by saying, "You can delete me. I don't need to associate myself with you." hurts, whether or not I agree with you. You didn't even give me the chance to agree or disagree before you said I could go. I don't want to delete anyone because of what they think, and I would hope that people I consider friends would want to keep me, even if we don't agree on every little thing. My list of friends would be very short if I only kept those. It would consist of precisely one.
So next time you're posting something and want to add the tag of, "Delete me if you want," think about what you're saying to the people you think of as friends. Is that post worth losing friends over? It could very well be. Is that post so important that it's worth telling people to leave before they even attack you? I don't think so. Not ever.
God bless, and see you soon (or in two years... But you can catch me- or, more precisely, Jeremiah's antics- on Facebook.),
Joelle
