CYBER SORTER:This week our social media agony aunt advises thinking the best of those who take a long time to respond on Facebook
Dear Cyber Sorter,
My sister-in-law, whom I have known for nine years, has accepted my friendship request on Facebook after ignoring it for 18 months.
I see her regularly and I always thought we got on fine, even if secretly I find her a bit loud and annoying.
It has surprised me how offended I feel now that she has chosen to accept my request. When she was ignoring it, I assumed she just hadn’t seen it or whatever and didn’t really think about it. Now I think she was ignoring me because she didn’t want to be connected to me online.
Have I got this all out of proportion? Isn’t it rude to ignore someone for so long only to accept them at last?
- GJ
Dear GJ,
Perhaps you are reading too much into this. Isn’t it possible that your sister-in-law hadn’t seen or had overlooked your friendship request? Or that she may have hit “ignore” before by accident? Then on a rare and thorough inspection of her profile came across your innocent little “friend” request and clicked “accept” without thinking any more about it.
Of course, she could be a manipulative, game-playing, evil witch. You know her better than I do, but these things are easily missed.
It would probably be better for everyone if you were to go with the first explanation and continue with your social life unaffected. After all, you have admitted you don’t like her much either.
Dear Cyber Sorter,
I have a Kindle and I love it. I read a lot of classic literature and consider myself well read and well educated. I also love an occasional thriller and some romance. The problem with the Kindle is that everyone wants to have a look at it and see how it works. If someone takes a look through my Kindle books they will see all my potboiler shame.
With paperbacks I could just kick them under the bed or disown them with the words, “Oh I wonder how that awful stuff got onto my bookshelf. Must have been so and so.” Is there any way I can hide books on Kindle?
- FG
Dear FG,
It makes me very happy to say yes, there is. You can hide your entire library. Make sure you are connected to the internet, then scroll down to the bottom and click on “collection”. Then click “hide” and it’s gone.
If you want to hide only certain books use the toggle or rocker button on the right. Select the title and click to the right and you will get a title page. Click on “remove from device”.
It actually just puts the book into “archived”, which you can access by clicking the “next page” button until you get the bottom of your list of books. It is easy to restore from here.
So whether it’s chick lit, erotica or that pile of self-help books, you can keep your private reading private.
Send your queries to cybersorter@irishtimes.com