St. Patrick's Day: Another reason to dislike Facebook

[Gordon_Sims]

I took a few minutes to get on my computer while dinner’s still cooking. It’s no better now than it was this morning. This wasn’t such an issue when Facebook had better options over how to control what you see from certain people. Before you could choose which content to block. Now it’s either “follow” or “don’t follow.” I have one family member who we have several reasons to stay in touch with but the pictures they post range from annoying to grossly unacceptable. I blocked their pictures and any links they shared a couple years ago but now that the blocking options have changed, I get them all again. It’s getting to the point where the reasons to stay in touch with this person are starting to lose out to their inappropriate behavior, which is a real shame.

Most of the rest of the people are old friends and acquaintances. I’ve thinned more of the herd over the last 24 hours than I have in a very long time. They just reached that tipping point. I honestly don’t need to see you downing a fifth, or you passed out next to a toilet, and I certainly don’t need to see more skin from you than I do from my wife over the course of a typical day. And while I usually do close my Facebook tab on the family computer when I’m not on there, my wife will check it out from time to time, usually to check for messages (some people only contact us through my Facebook account). She’s blocked/unfollowed more than a few of my friends for me.

I was talking to her about all this after Mass this morning and we’ve both lost patience with a lot of the people we know, not just over St. Patrick’s Day but the overall idea of how binge drinking has become the central feature of every occasion for which they can make an excuse to binge drink. We’re not 20 years old anymore. We have kids and know how to behave responsibly around them. I’d love it if these people could figure out the same.

 

[andrewstx]

I will always have a beer or two!

A Guiness. It’s a meal!

 

[mikekle]

Just like some people like to complain how the CC and some of the things we do and say offend them…I truly think christians need to stand up and make complaints about these idiots going about celebrating St Patricks day, they have no idea what they are actually celebrating, they are just using it as an excuse to get drunk and wear green…this is the extent of their knowledge concerning the actual holiday…this is offensive to me, since many businesses seem to change things when another person complains about anything remotely religious or christian, I should probably expect these businesses to change things based on my concerns…right?

Or, maybe if enough christians made their complaints known about this holiday, businesses, companies, and city leaders, would not cater to drunks on this day (or whatever day they choose to celebrate it on, whether its a wed or a monday! LOL)

Are these people really that stupid, that they have no clue about St. Patrick, or why its even a holiday? Im also not sure why they relate this to getting smashed?

I also find it completely ridiculous that they choose to celebrate it on another day versus the REAL day…Is this solely so they can get as drunk as possible?I dont think they would have a problem getting drunk on one day over another, these kind of people imo, dont seem to care what day they get drunk on…strange that they did this? No matter, Im not about to try and figure out the logic of a drunk person and why they do what they do! LOL

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Are these people really that stupid, that they have no clue about St. Patrick, or why its even a holiday? Im also not sure why they relate this to getting smashed?

I also find it completely ridiculous that they choose to celebrate it on another day versus the REAL day…**Is this solely so they can get as drunk as possible?**I dont think they would have a problem getting drunk on one day over another, these kind of people imo, dont seem to care what day they get drunk on…strange that they did this? No matter, Im not about to try and figure out the logic of a drunk person and why they do what they do! LOL

Yes, for them the whole point is to get as drunk as possible. The ones who celebrated it on Saturday did so in order to avoid having to take off work to deal with the hangover. For a lot of them, any excuse to drink themselves into oblivion is a good excuse. I deleted a few people last year who took the same view toward Easter. I didn’t get rid of everyone who used Easter as an excuse to get smashed, just the ones who posted a bunch of pictures and statuses about it.

Just off the top of my head, among the people I know, for at least some of them, the days/holidays that now qualify as “drink yourself into oblivion” days are their birthday, wedding anniversary, New Years*, Super Bowl Sunday*, Valentines, MLK Day, Presidents Day, Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday (or the weekend before or after), St. Patrick’s Day*, Easter (or Good Friday, depending on how/if their employer gives a day off for Easter), Indy 500, Memorial Day*, their kids’ last day of school, July 4th*, the weekend before their kids’ first day of school, Labor Day*, Halloween*, the night before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving*, and whenever their big Christmas party is (the ones with asterisks are the ones where I have to be extra vigilant about Facebook, or stay logged out of it all day, because I know the sort of content that’s going to be posted). The bulk of my family and friends self-identify as Catholic, so it’s not a secular vs. religious type of issue. We have open, standing invitations to a variety of parties on most of these days, but we no longer go because they’re such inappropriate environments (and in some cases, even dangerous) for kids.

For the record, although I no longer drink, I’m not anti-alcohol. I am extremely opposed to binge drinking and irresponsible behavior while drinking. I’m also opposed to exposing kids to this sort of behavior. At best, you’re condoning it in their eyes; at worst, you’re indoctrinating them into this binge-drinking culture. I know a bunch of my friends would refute me on this, but one of the reasons we avoid these parties is because of how many times we’ve seen their kids play drunk and imitate the behaviors of the adults. Whenever it’s been an issue, though, the complaint has been that we’re harming our kids by not letting them attend these things. Where’s a little common sense when you need it?

 

[VeritasLuxMea]

Played some drinking games (mostly beer pong and some quarters) on Saturday night. No one that was with us passed out next to a toilet and took pictures of it. If that’s the kind of thing your friends do then they obviously have some problems. You should be able to have fun, cut loose and celebrate a little without taking such pictures. Not a fan of going too far down the rabbit hole either way (partying so hard you get viciously ill or being afraid to live a little).

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Played some drinking games (mostly beer pong and some quarters) on Saturday night. No one that was with us passed out next to a toilet and took pictures of it. If that’s the kind of thing your friends do then they obviously have some problems. You should be able to have fun, cut loose and celebrate a little without taking such pictures. Not a fan of going too far down the rabbit hole either way (partying so hard you get viciously ill or being afraid to live a little).

Personally, I believe you ought to be able to have fun and cut loose a little without the risk of ending up passed out next to a toilet, pictures or not. The fact that so many of the ones I know do this with kids around probably disturbs me more than the other aspects of it. Like I said, I’m not opposed to drinking but I’d hope people would reach a point in their life where they’re able to evaluate the various aspects of their lives and lend more importance to the things that actually deserve it. I feel sorry for all these kids, whether it’s the ones whose parents drink with them around or the ones whose parents ship them off to a relative or neighborhood kid, tell them the reason they’re getting the night away is so Mommy & Daddy can get drunk, then put the kids through the aftermath of a hangover the next day.

 

[HB11]

love the icon wher did you get it? We attended a gaelic/garlic dinner in our Parish, it was a wonderful event.

Facebook does spread a lot of garbage. I guess it’s up to you to block it.

There are those who want to make all of us think that Saint Patrick’s Day is one big drunken holiday; that all irish who are catholic are drunks.

My biggest event was to take my family to the Saint Patrick’s Day parade and have corn beef and cabbage.

Saint Patrick, pray for us.

 

[gam197]

love the icon wher did you get it? We attended a gaelic/garlic dinner in our Parish, it was a wonderful event.

I saw it on the internet. How nice that your parish celebrates. We painted our nails lime green. It so nice to see children dressed in green ribbons and shirts.

 

[gam197]

Kate Middleton dresses for Saint Patrick’s Day and hands out shamrocks.

 

[misspriss]

…The only person on my facebook who posted a drinking picture was my Priest!

Just a Guinness 'stashe (with his Mustache March 'stashe), definitely not wasted. I guess I don’t have wild enough friends.

 

[mikekle]

Personally, I believe you ought to be able to have fun and cut loose a little without the risk of ending up passed out next to a toilet, pictures or not. The fact that so many of the ones I know do this with kids around probably disturbs me more than the other aspects of it. Like I said, I’m not opposed to drinking but I’d hope people would reach a point in their life where they’re able to evaluate the various aspects of their lives and lend more importance to the things that actually deserve it. I feel sorry for all these kids, whether it’s the ones whose parents drink with them around or the ones whose parents ship them off to a relative or neighborhood kid, tell them the reason they’re getting the night away is so Mommy & Daddy can get drunk, then put the kids through the aftermath of a hangover the next day.

I know what you mean, I feel especially bad for the kids too.

I find it hard to believe all these so called adults are doing this kind of thing…I guess they did not grow up yet though, back when I was in my late teens and early 20s, of course there was some wild and crazy nights, and days, but now that Im almost 40, I dont really have that urge to do things like that anymore.

I also have Facebook friends like this too, Ive known alot of them since middle school, and I noticed by their pictures and comments, when they go out drinking and partying, they tend to act just like they did when they were teenagers, and even more sad, when they go out partying, usually they try to get all their old friends together to get smashed with them…its almost like they have truly not grown up and wish to be a teenager again, and are not happy or content with their lives, I feel REALLY bad for their kids, I cannot imagine what these ‘adults’ act like at home on a normal day!!

I still dont understand why they feel they have to wait for a certain day or night to party though… I recognize they may not want to go thru a hangover at work and all that, but seeing how they act when they are drunk, It doesnt seem like they would care what day it is, as long as they get totally smashed. If they didnt mind going to school the next day with a terrible hangover, something tells me, as an adult, they probably do not mind going into work with a hangover either, so Im betting they drink and get smashed more than just certain days or holidays! LOL

What are these people going to be like when they are in their 70s and 80s I wonder?!!

 

[Gordon_Sims]

I still dont understand why they feel they have to wait for a certain day or night to party though… I recognize they may not want to go thru a hangover at work and all that, but seeing how they act when they are drunk, It doesnt seem like they would care what day it is, as long as they get totally smashed. If they didnt mind going to school the next day with a terrible hangover, something tells me, as an adult, they probably do not mind going into work with a hangover either, so Im betting they drink and get smashed more than just certain days or holidays! LOL

The ones I know don’t just indulge on those particular days; those days are just guaranteed to be worse than normal. There are plenty of other days throughout the year when they drink themselves into oblivion, but they don’t publicize those as much as they do the special days. I think the main reason they take care about which day it is is that, regardless of their behavior, they can’t recover anywhere near as fast as they did in college, so most of them know they’ll need at least a full day to recuperate. Despite their planning, over the last 2-3 years, the bulk of the ones I know have called in sick due to hangovers at least once (and, yes, almost all of them publicized this on Facebook).

What are these people going to be like when they are in their 70s and 80s I wonder?!!

I’ve wondered this myself. Very few of them have cut back at all as they’ve reached their late 30’s to mid-40’s. I have to wonder how their livers are holding up after 20-25+ years of steady abuse.

 

[robbmiller]

Simple solution… Delete your Facebook account.

 

[Saralinda]

On another forum, The Wild Geese, they are working to restore the true meaning of Saint Patrick’s Day as a celebration of our Irish heritage, not as an excuse to overindulge in alcoholic drink. Instead of just blocking these “friends” on Facebook, educated them. Let them know that you find it offensive. Then remind them of the contribution of Irish to American Life. They Irish helped bring the Faith to America. They also helped build the railway system, fought bravely on both sides in the Civil War, and fought for America in the Revolutionary War. Stop pandering to the stereotype and do something about it! The drinkers on St. Patrick’s Day drink simply because they are ignorant enough to party without knowing why. It is exactly like celebrating Mardi Gras without knowing the reason is truly to prepare us for Lenten sacrifice.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Simple solution… Delete your Facebook account.

We’ve talked about that option. Both my wife and I have friends and family who pretty much only communicate via Facebook. They tend to not answer their phones or respond to voice mails, but they will respond to a Facebook wall post or private message. A few of them are people we actually need and/or want to keep in touch with. I’ve been gradually pruning my account of the non-essential people. My wife keeps saying she’ll do the same but I think she enjoys her once-weekly session of logging into her account and telling me how much she can’t stand looking at it.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

On another forum, The Wild Geese, they are working to restore the true meaning of Saint Patrick’s Day as a celebration of our Irish heritage, not as an excuse to overindulge in alcoholic drink. Instead of just blocking these “friends” on Facebook, educated them. Let them know that you find it offensive. Then remind them of the contribution of Irish to American Life. They Irish helped bring the Faith to America. They also helped build the railway system, fought bravely on both sides in the Civil War, and fought for America in the Revolutionary War. Stop pandering to the stereotype and do something about it! The drinkers on St. Patrick’s Day drink simply because they are ignorant enough to party without knowing why. It is exactly like celebrating Mardi Gras without knowing the reason is truly to prepare us for Lenten sacrifice.

That’s not a bad idea and I have a few friends who do it. I don’t think it would be effective with a lot of these folks but I’ll probably post something positive/educational next year. Sadly, the fact that a lot of them look forward to Easter simply because it’s another long weekend and a chance to drink until they pass out makes me think that any educational opportunities about a more minor holiday would be a lost cause.

 

[waxwings]

Hopefully nobody else is having to deal with this. A lot of my friends, having to work on Monday, decided to use last night to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I know this because around dinnertime last night they started posting pictures of themselves as they started their binge drinking. My kids are able to see my page on the family computer so I try to delete content they don’t need to see. I had to check on my page regularly until they went to bed, not just deleting pictures but also blocking several people, some permanently. Dressing up in green is one thing, but people barely able to stand, picture after picture of them chugging drinks, beer bongs, drinking games and other unwholesome behavior is something else entirely. One lady from my high school showed off her new St. Patrick’s Day tattoo, wearing pretty much just her tattoo and not much else. I realize that most holidays in America are now seen as an excuse to binge drink, but St. Patrick’s Day is the one that, at least since my college days, has been designated as pretty much nothing but a binge drinking holiday, and it just seems to have gotten much worse the last few years, at least with a big segment of the people I know. Even worse, with Facebook the whole world gets to see their blind drunk behavior, the mistakes they picked up at the bar, and read the drunken Facebooking they do afterward. I just went through and deleted a bunch of other posts and will probably avoid it altogether the rest of the day. I’ll likely also pray for my friends to receive a dose of modesty, chastity, temperance and common sense.

In my country ,and town the birthplace of St Patrick,lots of drinking goes on,but nothing wrong with this providing there is no drunkness,but all Saints days should begin with attendance at Mass,and not all Catholics do this.The snake which St Pat,couldn’t eliminate just loves biting and tempting on Saints days.Christmas has also become an excuse for a booz up

St Mungo ,Pray For Us

 

[robbmiller]

We’ve talked about that option. Both my wife and I have friends and family who pretty much only communicate via Facebook [snip] weekly session of logging into her account and telling me how much she can’t stand looking at it.

I thought the same thing. Truth is that when people realized they couldn’t contact me via social media, they began contacting me using “old fashioned” methods. How did you contact these people before Facebook?

As for the weekly session, that sounds like age old gossip. We are all want to engage that behavior it seems. Lent maybe a good time to give that up for a while.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

I thought the same thing. Truth is that when people realized they couldn’t contact me via social media, they began contacting me using “old fashioned” methods. How did you contact these people before Facebook?

As for the weekly session, that sounds like age old gossip. We are all want to engage that behavior it seems. Lent maybe a good time to give that up for a while.

Contacting these folks before Facebook wasn’t an issue. They responded to emails, voice mails and phone calls. Now, my entire family (or at least one person per couple) has joined Facebook either because these people are generally unreachable otherwise, or because they found themselves essentially shunned without it. A lot of these same people who only communicate via Facebook also plan all their events on there. If you’re not a member, you’re not invited. I have one family member who joined and promptly un-followed each of his friends. If he gets a private message or an invitation to an event, he gets an email. Otherwise he has nothing to do with it.

If this option were viable for me, I’d take it, but some of the people I know only communicate via wall posts. Even if I send them a private message, they respond on my wall–or even worse, on their own wall. It’s extremely annoying because Facebook will occasionally quit showing me posts from some of my friends. I missed out on a few important messages because of this a while back. Instead of taking the sane route and contacting me via other means, the person in question just assumed I was ignoring them and got angry with me.

As far as my wife goes, I keep trying to convince her to delete or unfollow half her friends since she won’t give it up entirely. It really doesn’t serve much purpose other than making her upset. I’ll occasionally go through and unfollow the ones who anger her the most, or who post the most inappropriate stuff. That’s helped a little, but so many of her friends are so annoying that to cut out all the frustration I’d have to unfollow over 90% of the people on there.

 

[DMC12]

Hopefully nobody else is having to deal with this. A lot of my friends, having to work on Monday, decided to use last night to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I know this because around dinnertime last night they started posting pictures of themselves as they started their binge drinking. My kids are able to see my page on the family computer so I try to delete content they don’t need to see. I had to check on my page regularly until they went to bed, not just deleting pictures but also blocking several people, some permanently. Dressing up in green is one thing, but people barely able to stand, picture after picture of them chugging drinks, beer bongs, drinking games and other unwholesome behavior is something else entirely. One lady from my high school showed off her new St. Patrick’s Day tattoo, wearing pretty much just her tattoo and not much else. I realize that most holidays in America are now seen as an excuse to binge drink, but St. Patrick’s Day is the one that, at least since my college days, has been designated as pretty much nothing but a binge drinking holiday, and it just seems to have gotten much worse the last few years, at least with a big segment of the people I know. Even worse, with Facebook the whole world gets to see their blind drunk behavior, the mistakes they picked up at the bar, and read the drunken Facebooking they do afterward. I just went through and deleted a bunch of other posts and will probably avoid it altogether the rest of the day. I’ll likely also pray for my friends to receive a dose of modesty, chastity, temperance and common sense.

first: facebook is a page where people put stuff, so pretty much is not their fault.
second: why do you let your kids to look at your FB page? do you know that there is an age limit to that page? some people have posted nudity on it, would you like that your children see that or something problematic while you are gone or something? put a password on it and don’t let them to know it.