Facebook Groups - Where choice goes out of the window
It's not how you want to start your Sunday. Waking up on a rainy morning, checking your phone and finding your email inbox inundated with messages from strangers. Overnight you've been subscribed to a Facebook group by a well meaning friend and now every message posted on that group's forum has found its way into your email inbox.
The problem is, you didn't ask to be subscribed to the Facebook group. You weren't invited to join, you had no option or decision to make. Someone else took that decision away from you and just put you in there.
This happened to me this morning and it's not the first time. It's a relatively new function on Facebook and one that they need to act on quickly. You can leave the group but most people I asked aren't aware of the fact, or don't seem to know how to do so. To do so- go into the menu of all of your groups and then click on the cross alongside each respective group you wish to leave.
My main issues with this so far have been ones of inconvenience and annoyance. I don't want to have to change settings every time someone chooses to put me in a group, and I certainly don't want to have even more irrelevant mail traffic than I already face. In addition, I simply don't like the fact that other people choose which groups I join without consulting me.
However, what would you do if someone decided to join you to a group celebrating an extremist cause without your permission? Perhaps they chose to add you to a group supporting a racist or sexist cause. You then face the problems of being seen to support and be associated with a cause when the truth may be the polar opposite. What is in place to stop this happening?
Facebook have introduced some fantastic innovations to the world of social media. This is not one of them. They need to change the situation sooner rather than later. In the meantime, Facebook users need to consider their 'friends' and ask their permission rather than adding them to a group without it. For my part, I have resolved to leave any such group on principle as soon as someone adds me, I want to make that decision myself.
I think I might start a Facebook group to campaign for a change. Expect to be added soon!
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I agree that we should al
I agree that we should al have a choice here and that much of hat is done is well meaning.
I've learned to deal with large volumes of email so a couple of hundred additional notifications overnight never winds me up any more, after all, that's a choice I make to, to be frustrated and annoyed, or not to be. I also don't think that I ever receive irrelevant email, it's just information and when you design and put in place the right filters and rules it can be used to your advantage. I joined a couple of very active Empire Avenue related Facebook groups recently and that generated hundreds of emails, but enough of them had relevant information to help me learn that the (very short) time scanning the rest is worth it. I am learning new information, I'll change the settings when that stops.
The issue of a cause which I don't support is an interesting one, but I think here too there's a lot to be gained form being engaged on line and being ruthlessly consistent. This then becomes a risk management strategy, because someone adding you to a group that is at odds with your beliefs it will be obviously at odds. The challenge comes for those who are less consistent in their online presence and then association with a 'strange' cause can affect their reputation.
So, what's the answer, we are after all, all different. I think here Facebook should give us a setting allowing others to add us to groups if we wish, or to send an invite instead of just adding, or to refuse both as a default. That way, those who work in different ways can approach things in different ways.
Thanks for your comment
Thanks for your comment William.
You're right, everyone has different styles and tastes. I know that you interact in a very organised and interactive way both with social media and email, more so than almost anyone I know. Most people won't be as open to additional large volumes of email as you. Equally, I believe that most people would like the right to choose what email is relevant to them or not, not have that decision taken away from them.
On your other point, however consistent you are in your online strategy you are at risk of being placed in groups that go against your belief system. In your case I would argue that this is more likely to be the case as, to my knowledge, you have a completely open approach to accepting connections.
By the way, I am sure that you do receive irrelevant email. Either that or you have phenomenal spam filters or welcome unsolicited approaches from displaced African princes and....(well, we won't go there!!).
You do, in conclusion, reach the same point as me. Facebook should give us the right to choose whether or not we are happy for others to add us to groups, which they don't at the moment. As the title of the blog says, at the moment choice goes out of the window. That is simply unacceptable.
You may have missed my
You may have missed my points, let me provide a bit more detail - firstly I do support giving people the choice, there's a risk that your reply implies that I am happy not to have the choice. That's not the case, I'm just highlighting that my choice would be to allow (perhaps some) people to put me into groups without my pre-approval. I took from your article that you would prefer FB to change policy to your preference of not allowing it, I want them to change to allow any preference, so you can choose yours and others can choose theirs.
My point on being put into groups that cut across your values is that by being consistent other can tell that you wouldn't align with that group, not that you wouldn't be put into it. Because of consistency the risks to your reputation are minimised.
Consistency won't stop others adding you to their groups, but in some ways this is just a symptom of the open and transparent world of being on line. I just choose a different approach from seeking to control what others can do, because they will find ways to doit anyway, and minimize risk through my actions. It's a special case of 'doing what you control' one of the ten key things you have to do network effectively on-line that I discuss in my book.
To provide more clarity, I really have nothing to fear for my reputation because if I was put into an innapropriate group those that matter would know it wasn't my choice, and would tell me so I could take action to remove myself. I prefer that to being inconsistent and leaving others in doubt about my values.
Some act differently in different environments online, and that inconsistency is the real risk that they face, because they leave doubt in their networks about who they really are.
Finally, yes, I don't get very many of the gold dust, Nigerian scams or love notes. When some does get through it's informative about the source of the spam and let's me take further action to ensure that I have the right filters and rules in place. That makes it relevant, even if only momentarily, curiously when these sorts of mails stopped annoying me I seemed to stop getting them. it certainly doesn't take up any time or brain space.
Thanks William I didn't miss
Thanks William
I didn't miss your points at all, as I stress in the last paragraph of my response. You and I regularly agree to disagree, happily amicably. You make some valid points, but, I believe, so do I and my key point stands, the lack of choice will affect many more people adversely than please those who embrace it.
Andy this is also a pet hate
Andy this is also a pet hate of mine.
I've just checked and I have been "added" to 270 groups. Yes I could manually go through and leave them but why should I waste my time? I'm not even going to count how many emails and notifications I receive from them, it's something ridiculous like 200-300 a day!
Out of those 270 groups I'm only active in around 5-10 and only 3 or 4 on a regular basis.
I don't have a group myself but do have a Fan Page where I obviously can't add people (Facebook only allows you to add people to groups) so have to work pretty hard at getting my fans (currently just over 3,200).
The question for me is does the group marketing work? Most of the groups that I belong to are not that active with the majority of the members themselves being added to without their permission. So if the majority of people within the group have been added against their will are they going to participate and network?
Unfortunately there isn't a huge amount you can do if you've been added to a group celebrating an extremist cause or a group supporting a racist or sexist cause. The only thing you can do is leave the group and block/report them.
As much as I love Facebook there are more and more people who are using it purely to spam and with the introduction of groups being able to automatically add people this just aides people to abuse Facebook.
Lilach
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