Another Facebook conundrum: why do users repost and share

Yesterday on my DHs feed someone shared a video of a person in a police interrogation room that used a gun to commit suicide. We didn't watch it, but why would anyone share that? Horrible.


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A personal friend of mine is a Christian leader in Iraq and has been seriously affected by events there of late. He recently posted a very gruesome story from his location in which a family was martyred in a most horrible way due to their faith. It has been shared and reposted numerous times since then. I think it is because many people know that this is not a story that has been told in the news media and that it needs to be told. I needed to know it. 

That's one example.

The gross stuff like car accidents and train crashes and that plane that got shot down and other stuff that gets covered in the news media ad nauseum - I don't know why people feel the need to share that stuff unless they have some reasonable commentary to offer. I really don't go in for sensationalism. Just not my style. 

I think it's just an awareness thing. "Oh my gosh I had no idea. Everyone should know about this!"

Why do people race to post celebrity deaths?

Mostly I think this.

Some people are grief junkies and get off on spreading misery and horror. They have nothing better to do.

I get tired of reading these. I don't want to read something depressing every time I open facebook.  The animal abuse ones are the ones I see most often. Ugh!  They want to spread the news so people are aware and help animals find new homes.  It's depressing to see every day.

I have one facebook friend that shares everything she reads.  I get tired of it taking up my feed.

I go on Facebook to enjoy my friends and family.  I live in Germany so I am not around them.  However more and more I find the need to hide people.  I am tired of the blanket statements of if you do not repost or agree with me, then you are not supportive of _______, you don't believe in _______ you are ignorant if you are not sharing or believe what I believe_____ and so on.  I read the news I keep up to date with politics and world events, I do not need someone posting on FB what they think I should believe and know.

It can be unsettling and defeat the purpose of being there.

At least when things are shared here you can have the choice of opening or not!

If there's a specific type of story you don't want to see, there's a handy little browser plug-in called Rather. You can provide it keywords that you don't want to see in your feed and it'll replace them with something happier, like a picture of a kitten.

We were at the zoo this morning and outside the elephant exhibit there were posters about ivory poachers. Complete with gruesome pictures of dead elephants, elephants with the front of their head chopped off and bloody elephants laying in a big pile. I was like WTF? Families with young kids at the zoo know that poaching elephants is wrong and the people who need to be told this aren't going to be affected by the pictures any way. It was an awful display.

Yes, but we didn't draw pictures then either! lol  It was "wow, did you hear about ______?" or did you know ______?"  I think the constant showing of pictures/videos is taking the place of real communication.  You know, the spoken word. 

I have a close family member that does it all the time. I think in her own warped way she is using it to gather attention for herself. The worse the story is, the more she relishes in sharing it and shaming us all into to following suit. The joke's on her, I have hidden her because of this (and the fact that she's known to share 20+ stories at one time). You'd think she'd get the message since NO ONE comments on her shares, but apparently not.