Who Should You Accept As Friend On Facebook And Elsewhere?

Who to accept as friends?

1 Smiling faces. I just changed my profile from one of my books to a smiling face. After all this is Facebook, not Bookface.

2 I welcome other writers who know writers I know.

3 I welcome other Toastmasters who know toastmasters I know.

4 Close family who live overseas and write in a foreign language which I translate by clicking on translate to get the caption on the photo.

5 Cute pictures of animals.

Who not to accept as Facebook friends?

1 People whose posts are entirely their children or babies or who have children in their profile picture. My profile is public and I don't think their children should be on Facebook and I don't want to inadvertently expose them to risk.

3 Posts entirely in Chinese, Korean or Arabic which take ages to translate, deal with events and people I don't know, especially with lots of violence and political messages and rants against everyone and everything, could get me into trouble and don't contribute to my positive thinking day.

4 Closeups of snakes and pimples and cancer and knives and masked characters, whether real life or book covers. Maybe the best crime novel ever but I am looking for sweetness and light.

5 Anything which tells me to share this dire warming with everyone. It is spam. If it is a genuine police or government message there will be a link to a government website which I can show to somebody living in the same house without burdening total strangers with fake news or spam.

Now, to end by sending a positive note, you know why some poeple are rejected but you are or will be my rational and genuine good friend.

Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. President of Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters club. (See Facebook pages.)