To loathe back to school photos on social media?

[blueskyeve]

I'm clearly in the minority after scrolling through my Facebook feed today. Every single post on there is a photo of a child posing in their school uniform. Why? Please someone explain, I must be missing something.

Funsucker

Ok I guess I assumed most people have hundreds friends on Facebook. I don't know why I don't unfriend people. I plan to do this now.

It makes total sense why you would post a photo if the only people seeing it were family and friends.

I have Facebook friends that I never talk to or haven't seen for years and years. For example - my friends ex partners friends, or girls I went on a hen party with 10 years ago that I've not seen since. Silly really, just never thought to delete.

The only people on my social media are friends and family and I like seeing the children in their uniforms. It normally only happens once a year so why is that a problem? Worse things to be mad about.

I don’t mind the photos so much.
Any references to ‘smashing it’ or ‘amazing memories’ or ‘little man’ will push me over the edge though.

For posterity. That uniform will never be this clean again.

My goodness what a miserable curmudgeon you sound @blueskyeve Just unfriend everyone with any children under 21, and also with any grandchildren under 21. God forbid you see them celebrating their kids starting a new school.

Get a grip FFS!

I think if I had an adverse reaction to first day of school photos I would simply avoid looking at fb for the first week of September!

I'm not sure I am.

I don't have hundreds of people on fb. I just have friends who I want to share our lives with and I'm one who posts a 'first day' picture.
Because it marks the passing of another year.
Because its the one day of the year they look smart.
Because we have family that are not local, they like being kept up to date.

Biggest reason is I like the pop up 'memories', seeing how much they've grown up over the years.

Because most people think that because they think their kids are beautiful and wonderful everybody else does ! I think there should be a no one cares button

I don’t have hundreds of people on my social media. I have friends and family, many of whom I don’t see very often, who like to see photos of my children and how they are growing up. If you don’t like to see photos of your social media contacts’ children then perhaps they aren’t ‘friends’ and you shouldn’t have them on social
media in the first place?

I'm a cold hearted bastard, and even I've liked a couple of back to school photos today.

Tell you what. Post your OP as your status and your (ridiculous) friends list will magically edit itself. I imagine many of your ‘friends’ will be relieved not to see your asinine posts from your beloved groups show up on their news feeds any more.

I agree with you, OP but then I’m very grumpy and don’t like kids anyway.

I’ve started calling the 1st of September ‘Annual post pictures of your kids on Facebook’ day. I think the whole thing is a bit sad and attention seeking tbh.

I agree with you completely op! If the parents want the pics that's fine, but no need to make them public! Keep them for yourselves,
Much like the idiots that wish their non Facebook owning child a happy birthday & or to someone in the same house, & then there's the happy heavenly birthdays too!

I like how you’re asking why it should bother you so much. It sounds like you have a visceral dislike to this kind of thing.

One of my favourite psychotherapists - Philippa Perry - has this theory that whenever we have an outsized emotional reaction to a behaviour or a situation, it’s normally because of some unresolved issue within us that is looking for a way to express itself.

Off the top of my head, do these pictures make you question your own parenting choices? Is it to do with how you’ve been parented and the emphasis/lack of emphasis on external appearances over internal feelings? Are you judging the parents for their superficiality? Is it because you were judged this way? Are you judging them because they are seeking external validation? Do you judge yourself when you seek external validation? Do you abhor feeling needy?

I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but I think it’s always more interesting to examine our own feelings instead of other people’s actions.

Just don’t do anything when you see it that will do
your view won’t be that important anyway I expect

Because I have various relatives and friends who would (genuinely!) like to see a photo. I don't post much so it's easy to ignore if people don't care.
Similarly I like to occasionally see their children at significant points in their lives.

“One of my favourite psychotherapists - Philippa Perry - has this theory that whenever we have an outsized emotional reaction to a behaviour or a situation, it’s normally because of some unresolved issue within us that is looking for a way to express itself.”

If this were true then we’d all walk round as neutral robots with no empathy and no love, passion, desire for justice, critical thinking etc.

I agree with you op but I’m afraid seeking external validation and attention on social media is the default these days. Nobody even questions why it might not be appropriate.

i like it. You are a back to
school Scrooge OP

I don’t know about you, but the only photos like this that I’ve seen this week have been from people I know, not random strangers.

@waterproofed many years ago I realised that what I thought about how other people were dressed was actually more about me. If I was feeling confident then I had much less opinion about whether someone's dress was a good choice for them. Realising that helps me think about what is going on for me when I start judging others clothes.

Haven't managed to transpose it onto other areas yet but it seems logical.

I see hundreds of kids in new uniform every September. I still like seeing them on fb, especially if it's people I met when mine were babies and we hardly see each other now. And especially as we hit the high school crossover phase.

I agree - worth investigating if something really gets your goat in a disproportionate way.

I love them.