Weird facebook situation
Weird and a bit unsettling but not nefarious.
You know how you get those “you might know this person” friendship suggestions? To be clear, these are not friend *requests*, just suggestions that maybe you might want to connect with some person. Sometimes it’s a random person that you don’t know at all. Sometimes it’s somebody you kind of know or have heard of. I almost NEVER send requests to any of those people. I have plenty of facebook friends and most of those are chosen friends and they don’t usually post anything much. Instead I get ads and MAGA-type memes.
This morning, I got a friend suggestion with the same name as Bad Boyfriend, who I “went steady” with for a while in high school. The freaky thing is that this guy looked EXACTLY like Bad Boyfriend. But. I have a suspicion that Bad Boyfriend does not use facebook so I was a bit skeptical. I looked at this profile. He went to the same high school as I did but there wasn’t a whole lot of information or posts and I felt something was a bit off
After thinking about it for the entire day, I looked at the profile pic again and I realized that what was off was his age. He was not a young man but he didn’t really look as old as Bad Boyfriend would be (a year older than me). So I ended up guessing he is Bad Boyfriend’s son. To be clear, I know that Bad Boyfriend married “early” (to a girl in my high school that he started going out with after we broke up). I know nothing about his family like how many kids they had, boys, girls, whatever. I have not kept up with him at all over the years.
Again, to be clear, this was NOT a friend request. I also did not send him a friend request. I’m almost 100% certain this man knows nothing about me and I am not about to awaken any sleeping dogs surrounding my ancient relationship with his dad, assuming I am correctly assessing the situation. Bad Boyfriend and I both moved on many years ago. I am not really freaked out about this but I have no clue why facebook’s algorithm (or whatever) decided Bad Boyfriend’s son (if that’s who he is) and I might want to connect.
August 31st, 2024 at 9:38 pm
It’s weird and freaky that the internet knows so much about us. I also ignore most of the suggestions.
September 1st, 2024 at 7:28 am
I’m not surprised at all. As Margaret suggested, the internet, and FB in particular, knows a ton about us. We give FB access to our private lives simply by joining them. Assuming you listed your high school and hometown in your profile that would be enough for FB to make the connection to bad boyfriend. I have a love/hate relationship with FB. Years ago when I first joined I kept changing my mind and deleting my account. Then I’d weaken and rejoin. Did that 4 or 5 times. Now I’m pretty settled into it but not for friends. I use it to connect to large groups of strangers who share my interests. Book groups, watercolor painting groups, gardening groups, classic TV fans, benign stuff. It’s interesting that you’re getting MAGA memes. Now THAT would freak me out. Maybe FB knows your hubby’s political leanings. What I find most alarming about our internet world is how our phones and computers LISTEN to us. They hear us verbally (not in writing) discussing a new Coleman stove, as an example, and the next day ads for Coleman stoves pop up everywhere. THAT is big brother. When I joined FB I willingly gave up a lot of privacy. But listening to my dinner conversations is another thing. Maybe we should take the batteries out of all our phones when we’re talking???