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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What's the biggest lie/distortion you have seen someone post on social media?

245 replies

grumpelgoatskin · 19/12/2019 12:36

A friend posts regularly on Facebook about her very happy marriage and her wonderful husband.

In reality she cannot stand him and is looking for a way out.

I have no idea why she feels the need to post these lovey posts when she could just post nothing.

OP posts:
IamPickleRick · 20/12/2019 00:15

Or if they don’t want to admit it, the other graceful thing to do is just not post hypocritical posts in the first place. Accept who you were.

A lot of my friends still think she is their frenemy, or that she wasn’t that bad to them personally, or that one of her friends was worse, they look at it in varying degrees where as I just don’t add anyone from her or her friendship group. Some even remember themselves as being very popular with her when actually they were giving her their pocket money for the privilege.

I think I hate hypocrisy more than people bigging up their lives on fb or exaggerating. This just seems more dismissive where as the other one I can over look and just think, ahh, let them get on with it.

furrymulesandPJs · 20/12/2019 00:16

IamPickleRick You could bring her down by telling everyone the truth. D Probably though, living well is the best revenge

allotmentgardener · 20/12/2019 00:34

My SIL harps on about being poor. She drives a brand new mini and they had 3 weeks in Florida this year. Doesn't know the meaning of poor. Just a bloody attention seeker

sayanythingelse · 20/12/2019 00:54

An ex-colleague left to start her own business. She posts about 10 posts a day on FB on the law of attraction, positive thinking and how it's allowed her to be self employed and run a successful business. She even goes live on Facebook to give talks to others. I'll give her credit, she's worked hard on building her business from scratch but I know she's not successful because she keeps ringing our boss constantly begging for her job back because she's broke Grin.

It's always the ones who shout loudest who have the most to hide.

PiggyInTheMiddle19 · 20/12/2019 01:06

A friend always says how she's doing housework and is a clean freak.
Reality.. 7 of washing up. Shoes stick to floor. Laundry piled ( dirty) everywhere. Thick brown limescale and god knows what in her loo. Thick brown scum line round bath. Bed only stripped 3 or 4 times a year. Filthy walls.
All pics of her dc are taken in the same spot.. Only spot in lounge that's not cluttered.
On the other hand.. She's a great mum. Who does so much with her dcs.. And has brought them up to be polite young children who are very respectful.

NoGravyForYou · 20/12/2019 01:25

SIL!! Has no interest in her child from one day to the next except times where she can make it a photo shoot and post it on Facebook with captions like "so much love for this one " or "my whole world ". Child has started requesting to spend the weekends she should be at her mums with her dad.

WendyMoiraAngelaDarling · 20/12/2019 01:39

Someone I went to school with endlessly slags off their ex and tells an earnest story of how he just fell out of love with her and ended the marriage with dignity and mutual respect. In reality he went to a school reunion - I didn't go - met up with a fellow class mate and had started an affair and left his wife and children for her within a matter of weeks. The two of them now make it theirs life's work to post about what a spiteful, bitter woman she is all over SM. I had to unfriend them both.

furrymulesandPJs · 20/12/2019 01:46

WendyMoira I have no time for drama on Facebook to be honest. I just disengage or unfollow them. FB is my downtime, no gloomees allowed.

Buyitinbamboo · 20/12/2019 06:03

My dad likes to post photos of my children, he hardly sees them. One is 5 weeks, he's seen them once.

Last year he took all my siblings and step siblings on holiday and posted how he's just missing me and his grandchild. We weren't invited...

WhenYouCantRunYouCrawl · 20/12/2019 06:05

My FIL posted a picture of my MIL on her birthday with a gushing paragraph that stated that she was "adored by her 4 grandchildren."

Two of those children are my DC and they wouldn't recognise her if she passed them on the street.

AreWeAnywhereNear · 20/12/2019 06:07

A friend of a friend filterers her pictures so much on FB I didn't recognise her, she's literally half the woman on social media. It's ridiculous.

Another friend of a friend, regularly posts about money not making you happy her parents are multi millionaires and she has been given a house and a trust fund.

I've massively stepped away from FB and heavily edited my friend list.

FrangipaniBlue · 20/12/2019 06:33

A bloke who posts pictures of his wife and 3 kids with gushing commentary about how lucky he is, or pictures of his wife with "look at this stunner, I'm definitely punching"

Yet every time he goes out with the lads he doesn't go home...... king of the ONS.

PenelopePeachStone · 20/12/2019 06:52

There’s a fb page I love called ‘u ok hun?’ It takes the peepee out of these kinds of people on a regular almost daily basis :) xx

jaseyraex · 20/12/2019 07:24

I had a friend who faked an entire pregnancy. She 'gave birth' prematurely, she had photos of the baby in NICU, then the baby died. No one seen the baby and no one was allowed to attend the funeral. She got rumbled when a friend of a friend turned out to be friends with the actual woman of the baby whose photos she was using. It was horrendous. Still no idea why she did it other than for attention because there was no go fund me pages or anything like that. Safe to say not many people stayed friends with her after that.

Ffsnosexallowed · 20/12/2019 07:32

An acquaintance who posts constantly about how fabulous her son is, lots of heart warming memes about raising boys etc. He spent time in young offenders after he assaulted her.

WatchingTheMoon · 20/12/2019 07:35

@jaseyraex I mean, that sounds less like attention seeking and more like genuine mh problems to me. I'm not saying it's good or you have to be her friend, but lying to that extent is usually mh related.

Ohdearohdearyme · 20/12/2019 07:45

My ex posting about how happy he is with his new girlfriend when his mum told me he cried about our split the day before that and he admitted to his friend prior to that he had fucked up and wanted me back.

No sympathy - my ex was abusive.

PlushPlush · 20/12/2019 07:46

@jaseyraex That reminds me of something terrible I heard on a podcast - a woman was faking a pregnancy and when her due date came and went with no baby she advertised some baby things online and when a pregnant woman came round to buy them she attacked her, cut the baby out of her, and then went to hospital saying she'd just given birth to it! Horrifying!

Heatherjayne1972 · 20/12/2019 07:47

This is why its known as fakebook in my circles.

Rosetintedperhaps · 20/12/2019 07:49

Slightly different scenario but....

A number of my fb friends have DC with autism. My son is autistic.

A number of my fb friends have parents with dementia or Alzheimer's. My mother has Alzheimer's.

Almost without exception, these friends post frequently about their disabled relative, often recounting details of strange, embarassing or distressing things they have done.

I never post about my son or my mother, have never even mentioned their diagnosis on social media although anyone who knows me reasonably well in person is aware. I just don't think it's fair and an invasion of their privacy. My son is high functioning so I don't think he would appreciate reading it in the future (doesn't seem to stop friends with high functioning kids though). I have a number of relatives who are close to my mother on fb and who I update privately - I think it's unfair to plaster it all over fb!

I do feel a bit bad though. I have one friend who posts prolificly about his mother with Alzheimer's and gets loads of comments supporting and empathising. I never comment but we do discuss our mothers when we meet in person.

When I do post on Facebook, it tends to be be positive stuff - pics of days or nights out, holidays, good stuff that has happened (not filtered though). It probably gives the impression that my life it's much better than it really is.

Does this make me a fake by commission??

Rosetintedperhaps · 20/12/2019 07:51
  • ommission not commission!
TheJoxter · 20/12/2019 08:00

My ex posts about the (fictional) successful business that he founded and how he’s going to move to London soon.

In reality he’s got a minimum wage, dead end job and doesn’t even earn enough to afford rent here let alone in London

JustDanceAddict · 20/12/2019 08:06

I just roll my eyes at the FB fakery or massively exaggerated fab lives. These people tend to incessantly comment and like each others’ posts so they just do it more. 100% attention seeking esp when you know the person IRL and they’re not particularly nice (but think they’re amazing).

I knew a mum from DCs’ primary who was the most aggressive person ever and had a massive chip on their shoulder, but used to post stuff about how everyone should be calm and zen. She certainly wasn’t taking her own advice!!

MyShinyWhiteTeeth · 20/12/2019 08:34

A man that doesn't pay any child maintenance, rarely sees his children and is always getting fired - has a wonderful facebook life.

He cuts his ex wife and her new step children/baby/husband out of photos of them with his children and posts them as if he was there with them.

He writes comments as if he's the one paying for everything - the riding lessons, music tuition, education etc whereas it's mostly the new husband that actually pays for everything.

He makes comments as if he's broke because of his children's expenses yet in reality he can't manage his money and keeps losing his jobs.

The other woman (real reason why his marriage broke up - not - as he tells everyone - due to his ex wife's new husband who she met months after the split) also posted photos of his children (with their mother very poorly cropped out) with 'the new family' type comments only two weeks after the split. He was still denying anything happened at that time.

HideYourBabiesAndYourBeadwork · 20/12/2019 08:46

I have a fb friend who would post gushing bollocks about her husband who was her rock/her world/love him soooooo much”. In reality they were both cheating on each other, they’d also have very public fights on fb and he would put her back in her box very harshly. She was cringeworthy but he was an out and out bully from what I could see.

Those Snapchat filtered pics with lots of comments like “you look gawjus hun” like how can you tell? Confused

A relative of mine who shares posts about the importance of family, despite being a total bawbag to her own family all the time, to the point we periodically don’t speak to her.