Yes, drama is everywhere within the facebook crowd. It's hard to look away sometimes. Another example would be the (somewhat) anonymous nature of people posting on news sites. There may be a few good points made but they get lost in the hundreds of abrasive personal attacks that spin out of control. I think that these often play a role in negative race relations.
Have to quote my Amigo, "you can't get all bent out of shape at an anonymous internet character" There is only one of them here that I don't like and God help his sorry ass if he ever because no long anonymous to me.
What I've seen happening a lot on Facebook lately is that someone will "like" a political picture or whatever, and it shows up in my newsfeed or ticker, so I see it involuntarily. When it happens to be something really extreme, childish, or just downright stupid, my opinion of that person takes a small hit. I don't even think they realize that it's showing up in everyone's feed, so they may be revealing things about themselves to an audience that they didn't know was listening. A good example is the drug testing of welfare recipients issue. Yeah, it sounds great in theory, but in reality, it costs way more money than it could ever save. They've tried it in Arizona and Florida, with catastrophically horrible results. I think only a very few people (we're talking single digits out of tens of thousands) actually tested positive. Yet that doesn't stop people from liking or sharing the picture saying "If I have to take a drug test to keep my job, you should have to take one to stay on welfare" or whatever it says. Hilariously, most of the people who have shared it don't even have to fucking take piss tests!! But Shane is right; it can definitely lead to a lot of drama, if you're not careful. But, I have friends all over the country & world, and it's a fantastic way to keep up with everyone.
Chaos, I think you are seeing the person "like" certain things because you have interacted with them on FB in the past, such as commenting in one of their updates or wishing them a happy birthday (or they have commented or liked something on your side), etc. I agree with pretty much everything in your post.
While facebook is different than this site in many ways, it is also similar. Shane discusses topics that interest him and shares some personal details. The basic format is the same: communicating with "friends" online socially. You could just as easily get into drama on this site if you let yourself. I browse "the other LSU site" at times and there is quite a bit of drama over there that has led to numerous lives ruined. While we're off topic, is martin gone forever or has he been on that trip to various countries that he mentioned awhile back?
There are a lot of female users on that site. Some of the segments (such as OT) encourage a lot of open discussions and flirting between the males/females. Some of these innocent flirtations have led to people meeting up in person (including married, etc.). Or, sometimes people like to vent about personal information and ask for advice or brag about things they maybe shouldn't have done (under the veil of anonymity). There are so many active users over there that they will identify you if they feel it is necessary. For example, guy brags about hooking up with his girlfriend's sister. Everyone thinks the guy is scum so they find out who he is and pass along the "secret" information to girlfriend.
