About raising "awareness" on FB

[sensuallettuce]

Just had a couple of messages about the "fun game" on FB where "men will wonder what is going on with our status updates" by writing a colour or a piece of fruit or some bollocks on our wall to "raise breast cancer awareness".

AIBU to wonder how the hell this "raises awareness" or does anything other than irritate grumpy cows people like me and the "men" probably couldn't give a shit/don't even notice. Is FB the right forum for this and is just just me that this irritates the hell out of and will while it sweeps FB over the coming weeks.

Hate cancer status updates ("put this on your status for 1 hour to say you hate cancer" well I don't fucking love it do I?! ).

Hate copy and paste updates and hate RIP pages.

Want to raise awareness do the Race for Life like I did last year or get off bloody FB.

Sorry I do like FB because I'm sad and lonely to socialise of an evening but AIBU to think this is so lame and meaningless?!

Oooh haven't seen ill children photos :( that's bad.

YANBU. I hate these things - most especially the round robin secretive emails trying to get people to post utter shite on their walls.

Raise awareness by doing something positive: like pages of charities you are particularly interested in; share pages of their specific campaigns that interest you. or, even do something off FB But please do not c&p shit messages asking me to post something about hating cancer on my wall as I will either delete you or hide you.

YANBU, I also hate the 'Repost this if your children mean the world to you'. What, so if I don't repost, I don't give a flying fuck care about my kids?

Yes Mamma

Sensual lettuce I've deleted a lot of people because of them.

I also flipped my lid when someone posted a photo of a dog, with it's bottom jaw blown off. It was still alive. The caption read 'kill the scum that did this', whereas I agree with getting the horrible person, I don't want to see the images. I was crying for ages, I'm dead soft.

I accept not everyone agrees with me re RIP pages - think they are a bit Diana esque we need to have this hysterical outpouring of grief - and do the families even see them? They've just been bereaved .

YANBU about the "games", and I will delete anyone who posts them.

But YABU about the RIP pages.
"and do the families even see them? They've just been bereaved"

All the RIP pages I've seen have been set up by the family.

YANBU apart from the RIP pages. As a family we drew so much comfort when my dad died and someone in the village started one for him. He touched literally hundreds of peoples lives and helped many young people achieve higher in life than they ever thought possible (he was a teacher). We wouldn't have known this if it hadn't been for FB. Some beautiful and touching comments were read out at his funeral too.

YANBU i hate it how can saying something in a status show your support i hate those, I also hate the posts that state you are a heartless cow if you don't repost about XYZ

It is known as 'slacktivism'. People joining in a 'cause' or spreading a message without actually doing anything useful towards a cause. It really gets on my nerves as fb et all can be used for good and can help causes if used correctly; people who are doing charity races/events can let their friends know for example and they might decide to donate. But posting random ambiguous statuses or profile pictures helps no one, and the people that do these 'reposts' ime never actually donate or participate in a charity event

In general I don't mind awareness raising - it's easy enough to ignore.

That specific one annoys me though as I know a bloke who had breast cancer (obviously it's the same area of the body, not some kind of strange man-with-woman-parts thing), and it is actually pretty rubbish given how pinkified the whole thing is. It's a really tiny point, I know, but it did stay with me and make me wonder a bit about the pinkification of it all. I dunno .. the 'men will wonder' thing or the earlier meme going round about posting the colour of your knickers to support breast cancer just seems a bit off to me. I can see both sides as it's good to get rid of the stigma that breast cancer (any cancer) doesn't stop you having a sense of humour or being sexy or fun to be with ... but equally for quite a lot of people this mode of campaigning must be a bit alienating.

You might feel a bit bitter, as a bloke, if it was all presented as a 'secret' women's campaign and it was your wife or your mum or daughter you were worrying over or nursing?

Sorry, that was clear as mud wasn't it!

The only thing these things raise is the awareness that the person posting is a div.

And thats me being ver polite.

Wrt RIP pages, if any fucker dared start one of these on behalf of one of my loved ones...actually even tinking of the possibility makes me feel violent. How crass and tasteless and lacking in any respect or dignity.

Yanbu. I really hate the snotty repost statuses, stupid stuff like it's daughters week (every other week), or post this for an hour to prove you care etc, especially when they add an extra arsey tone with 'I already know who will repost' or '97% won't repost', just fuck off!

Love the phrase 'slacktivism'!

a friend of mines son has a heart condition and she is in a facebook group for the hospital her son attends , anyway i picture was going round of a ill baby saying X needs so much pounds for his operation in america, It turned out to be MY friends friends baby she had posted the pic in the group and somebody stole it

LRD, Zombie is glad you raised the pinkification point. Zombie finds that aspect of "raising awareness" deeply disturbing. No cancer, including breast cancer, is pink and fluffy. It's hideous. When it first began as just a pink ribbon it was OK. But it's been turned into a circus.

Zombie says that as someone who, in the past 8 months, has had a mastectomy, 4 months of aggressive chemotherapy, is 2/3rds of the way through her radiotherapy course and will be starting 18 cycles of Herceptin in July.

She has explained to FB "friends" who have invited her to join the secretive game things or enquired why she won't repost anything pink. She has only had to unfriend 2 people. The rest said that they just hadn't realised how it might feel to someone actually experiencing it and haven't posted anything similar since.

Sorry to hear that, zombie, and best wishes with it all.

You're right it's not pink or fluffy.

When it first began it wasn't a pink ribbon - it was orange iirc.

I hate the "if you don't do this you don't care" type posts and all the games, C&P etc. I'm in control of my own status thank you very much! I've C&P'd some like "post this if you know someone who has been eaten by dragons" because they take the mick out of what I don't like and I like the dragon one because I've been eaten by dragons many times and have friends who have, so I knew they'd appreciate it.

(Sorry, read that over and realized 'best wishes' sounds congratulatory which is not the intention. I hope it goes successfully and painlessly as possible.)

Zombie knew what you meant, LRD. Thanks.

I agree. Another cancer survivor here (not breast cancer) and also I know a man who was diagnosed but fortunately is still with us. I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to my DH who nursed and looked after me when I was very ill - the thought of excluding him from any cancer related campaign is vile and insulting. This is why I will not run/waddle Race for Life - simply cannot get my head round a campaign that excludes men like that. I also think these fatuous campaigns simply identify people who are lazy and hard of thinking - they certainly don't raise awareness.

Raising awareness would be the stuff like reminding women to attend smears, give up smoking and understand early symptoms of bowel and lung cancer.

And I'm far too old and grumpy to be guilt tripped by any "97% won't dare post this". Since I "dared" to go through a life threatening illness, think I've earned the right to post what I fucking like. Grrr.

And Zombie, best wishes for your continuing treatment.

YANBU i hate ones that use kids pictures.There was one going around saying this baby has a cancer fb will give (i think)10cents for every like.The baby in question has a birth mark on his face and is a healthy 7year old.I think differently of people who repost stuff like that.Facebook is not going to give away money

I hate those "97% of people won't repost this" er yes we can hope!!

I keep up to date with this stuff through Hoax-Slayer top site

And who ever makes the repost must be one sick depraved person.