Facebook Blocking?

[sillysally]

I'm having some problems with my aunt on Facebook over a recent political issue in our state (the now infamous Indiana bill). I've shared articles, political cartoons, etc. My aunt disagrees strongly with me and has private messaged me trying to suck me into a one on one debate. Neither of us are going to change our minds and we will just waste lots of time and energy arguing pointlessly. I told her that, and since then she has messaged me repeatedly trying to engage me and I've ignored her. She's also begun sending texts to my mother complaining about my opinions and trying to engage her in argument. She now seems to be taking things I post that are totally unrelated to her personally. It wouldn't hurt my feelings any if she unfriended me if she is so distressed by my opinions.

If this continues I'd like to block her, but I don't want it to become a family "thing" if I can avoid it. If I block her will she know it? Will it unfriend her if I block her?

 

[Greenmagick]

You can "hide" her feed and also make it so that your posts dont show for her unless you specify them to. But that doesnt solve the PM problem....

I have a BIL that I block from a lot of my posts as he always has to turn it into a thing...even after DH asked him, very nicely, to stop.

 

[JessLough]

Yes, if you block her, it will unfriend her. She wouldn't get a notification she's been blocked/unfriended, although she wouldn't be able to find you if she searched for you.

As has been said, you could unfollow her and block her from just seeing things you post, but 1) you'll still see her stuff and she can still pm, and 2) she'll probably catch on if she goes to your profile and it looks like you just haven't posted something in a while, or if someone else says something to her about something you post ("hey, did you see she posted thisandthis and thatthingthere?").

You do have the option to "turn off chat" for a specific person, meaning they can't message you but you could message her if you needed. You could also easily turn it back on if you needed to actually talk to her at some point.

 

[GoingNowhere]

To my knowledge, "turning off chat" does not mean that the person cannot message you - it just means that they can't see when you are online to chat. That is, they can click "messages" on the left of their home screen and send you a message that way, or click your profile and send you a message that way. So if your aunt tends to only message you when she sees that you are online, turning off chat could work.

My thought would be to censor all political posts so that only certain people can view them. When you start to type a post, there is a little box at the bottom right that says "friends." If you click it, you can readjust who can see that post. You can make a custom setting for "share with friends but don't share with [insert name of specific aunt]." Viola. She now won't see the posts that anger her and you *hopefully* won't continue getting argumentative messages, but you'll still be able to be her friend and she will be able to see neutral posts that you choose to share with her. It just adds an extra few seconds to each post you put up.

 

[JessLough]

To my knowledge, "turning off chat" does not mean that the person cannot message you - it just means that they can't see when you are online to chat.

Weird, I just tried and they can. I used to be able to stop people from being able to message me, but now I don't know how I did it :/ Facebook changes too much.

 

[Kat09Tails]

You can alter her friend settings to make it so her view is fairly limited. I do this with work folks, dog folks, and other people who aren't in my immediate circle of friends. Then you just have to be mindful about what you post as public vs just to friends.

 

[milos_mommy]

I'd just be straightforward and tell her next time she messages you, "hey, I get that you really want to discuss this but I'm not interested in having a political debate with family. If you can't respect that I'm going to block you, because your messages regarding my posts make me really uncomfortable. I hope you'll agree only to discuss family and personal matters over FB with me"

Yeah she might get mad at you but she's the one who's being difficult, not you.

Or just ignore/delete any comments on the subject and ask your family not to discuss your political positions with her. If she texts your mom complaining and your mom either ignores it or tells her she's not interested in getting into the middle of it, she'll stop

 

[Dogdragoness]

I have a lot of friends who used to share tons of political stuff and it clogged my news feed everyday that I would hardly see anything else. So I just selected "Hide all posts from [insert whatever was the articles source was]" I didnt have to unfollow my friends, I just blocked the posts at their sources, and now only every once in a while I will get them, but not nearly to the volume I did.

 

[Beanie]

I agree with milo's mommy on this one, I think you just need to be straight up with her and hopefully it will stop... I'm not sure there's a way to stop it turning into a family "thing" since she is already trying to drag your mom into it. It sounds like it kind of already is a thing. =/

I can't imagine texting somebody's family to be like HEY HEY I REALLY WANT TO ARGUE ABOUT THIS HEY omg...

 

[sassafras]

I'd just unfriend her. I assure you, the rest of the family knows how she is and will understand that you just didn't want to argue politics with someone who wouldn't let it go.

 

[thehoundgirl]

If you want to keep her on your page and not unfriend her.. you can add her to restricted list (it's under the friends button add to another list) she can only see what you post if it's public. But she might notice and ask why she can't see anything on your page. :/ So it would probably be best to unfriend her.

 

[sillysally]

I've decided to hide all my status updates and shares (even the non-political ones since she seems to have taken something I posted that had nothing to do with her or the issue at hand as a personal attack), and if she posts anything to my wall or continues the PMs I'll go ahead and block her.

I knew that we were headed off the rails when she wrote this in her first message:

"America will become a non commercial group of tribes bartering for their very existence because the "government" has no tax money from any "commercial" enterprises"

 

[Fran27]

Nice gif!

When you block someone, they see your name as black and non clickable, and that includes PMs too, so she would notice right away.

 

[MicksMom]

It sucks, doesn't it? My sister set my mother up with a FB account in the middle of December. By January I had her unfriended, and by the end of January, I had her blocked. Funny thing is, it appears my mother doesn't even know I did it- she kept tagging me in posts. :lol-sign: