CYBER SORTER:This week our social media agony aunt asks how do you turn off Farmville and does tweeting cheapen sex?
Dear Cybersorter,
I’m so turned off by Facebook because all I get are updates from Farmville and Mafia Wars and people who like a product, campaign or something else. It takes me time to find a post from a real person.
My inbox is clogged with friends “challenging” me to games or asking me to like something.How do I block this spam without cutting off my friends? SR
Dear SR,
The statistics would suggest you are friends on Facebook with a lot of women around the age of 43. This group is the biggest user of games such as Farmville and Happy Aquarium.
Women of this age are generally considered a sensible bunch so it’s surprising they have taken up such an irritating pastime.
There are also all sorts of products and brands that are only now finally waking up to the fact that Facebook can allow them to access large numbers of people.
This, teamed with recession-hit ad men who are displaying the desperate cunning of a fox during hunting season, are what is causing your Facebook spam jam.
1) Delete all those pages you have “liked” that you never look at.
2) Hover your mouse over any Farmville update and click on the X. Chose “Hide Farmville”. This works for most social media games.
3) Don’t be afraid to ignore or delete anyone or anything you are not interested in.
Dear Cybersorter,
I follow someone on Twitter who, among other things, tweets about her sex life.
She’s very clever and tweets about all sorts of stuff, from politics to sport, but occasionally she will announce that she has just “done it”.
I find them entertaining, but even though they don’t read like TMI (too much information); surely tweeting anything about your sex life is TMI? Should I advise her to stop?
LM
Dear LM,
You should not. If her tweets are not graphic or offensive then it’s not your place to censor her.
Tweets now last only four days before being swept away, so there’s less chance of this coming back to bite her.
However, she should be sure her partner is comfortable with this personal information being released to the wider public, particularly as tweets are time-sensitive.
People she encounters in a professional capacity may know she’s been in bed instead of working, but really, what sort of kill joy would fire a person for that?
One of the reasons you follow her is her funny tweets, so her personality, including a propensity to share personal details, is a draw.
Don’t disapprove; see this as an opportunity to bust out of our sexually repressed past.