Family vs. Facebook?

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. When I first found out about it in early 2007, I thought this was a great platform to share my baby pictures with everyone, but what I was most excited about was finally getting in touch with my classmates and friends that I hadn't spoken to in years. Between people from school, college, sorority, the different jobs and the different choirs I've belonged to, my list quickly added up to 300+. I was so happy to chat with everyone and find out what they've been up to, and of course, show off my baby as well. :)

Then my family started joining.

At first I didn't see the harm in it. After all, I see them all the time, so it wasn't a big deal. We would even joke about whatever we saw on Facebook every time we had a family party.

Then the gossip issues started.

Slowly I noticed that they were taking things way too seriously and getting angry or criticizing everything that they read or saw. Things started turning south pretty quickly. Now I can put my family members into 3 categories:

1. Not on Facebook or very little interaction. These people take everything WAY too personal and get offended easily. They don't like it when people overshare, and feel like Facebook is a bad place where people are either mean or lying.

2. Gossips Investigators. These people may overshare or not share at all, but they're constantly checking everyone else's status and posts. They may comment or simply observe, but either way, they report back to the rest of the family what you said or shared.

3. Intruders. These people are not my friends, but have managed to either get into, or sit beside mutual friends while they were checking out my profile. I'm not lying, there are actual people in my family who have done this.

Now I'm left with two choices regarding Facebook:

1. I can watch what I say and share. This will undoubtedly cause me less trouble with my family. However, it goes against everything I stand for. You know, freedom of speech and all that bullshit.

2. I can block everyone who falls into the 3 categories above. The good thing about Facebook is I can control who sees my status, pics, and other posts. The problem? Explaining to the members of my family why they suddenly can't see my pics or wall. I think the reason why family conversations are awkward is because they usually don't know how to take a comment with an open mind, and tend to say things they wouldn't normally say to non-family members. Oh, and that sometimes includes me too.

So after debating the pros and cons of each, I have decided to implement the second one. My selling point was when I realized I was wasting too much time and energy thinking about all this. Also, I was going to have to think about this EVERY single time I posted a status to make sure it was filtered correctly.

I realized it wasn't worth it. I want to have a good experience on Facebook, and be able to interact freely with my friends, and be able to write what I want, when I want, without having to think about how people will interpret what I'm writing.

Now all I need is a volunteer to talk to my family for me...