A Bit of Social Media Etiquette

The experience with the Italian is winding down and in it's ending, I have been prompted to point out some pointers on social media etiquetten as it applies to online dating; specifically Facebook.

1. Privacy Settings: When you decide to add someone to your friends list on Facebook, please consider the state of the relationship you are in at that time. Consider making a subgroup in your friends list for people that you've met through online dating. Proceed to block all of the people on that list from things that they probably shouldn't be allowed to see, yet. Things such as: pictures of your friends kids, pictures of your family, pictures of you that might give the wrong impression. Why? Consider the fact that you don't know this person very well and you're friends may not want strangers looking at pictures of their children. There are the stalkers as well, so the less information that they have about you, the better. At least until you know them better. For all you know, when you start taking a look at their page, you might not even want to be friends with them anymore. As the relationship progresses, you may want to allow them further into your life. Treat your profile page just like you would treat your life... unless you're a habitual oversharer. You might not start up your first date by telling them about that one time when you were a sloppy drunk and bicurious, but your profile page might.
2. Ending the Friendship: Don't wait to unfriend. If you feel like the relationship has come to an end, unfriend the person. Don't keep them around in hopes of being friends. If you could have been friends, you would probably still be dating them. I elaborate on my reasoning for that below.
3. Likes/Comments: If you like a picture or a status, then say so, within reason. Don't like every single thing that the person posts. It's creepy and almost impossible to do without looking like a stalker. On the other hand, it seems silly to send a text to the person saying, "I like your photo," when you could have just... liked their photo. If you want to comment, go ahead, but again, with moderation. And maybe if you think of something kinky or lovey-dovey to say.. put that in a text because it just deters everyone else from commenting. As a friend, if I see an overly sweet conversation happening in someone's status comments, I'm probably not going to comment because I feel like I'm interrupting something. And if you're unsure of what to say, just hit the like button and walk away.

The second point refers to the ending of my dealings with the Italian. Normally, I'm cold-blooded when it comes to my friendslist. If I don't talk to you anymore, I remove you. For some reason, I decided to wait to remove this guy. When I finally decide to remove him, I can't access his page. I can see his profile pic and that's it. At first, I thought that he had blocked me, so I did some research. When you block someone, they are also unfriended, so I shouldn't be able to see him at all. I spend the better part of the week Googling it and I can't figure out what he has done, so I give up. 

A few days ago, I get a notification on my phone that his birthday is coming up. What the hell? How can he be blocked and still remind me that his birthday is coming up. I decided to try one more time, I type in his name and... success!! He is unfriended. Up to now, I can't figure out what he did. Maybe he changed his privacy settings so that he could still creep my page while stopping me from doing the same. Weird. So I say again, end the Facebook friendship, while you still can. 

These are just a few pointers from me, use them, or don't; that's up to you. I'm just trying to save you a few hours of your life on Google and possibly a restraining order.