Suggestions for Family Stuff?

[MermanJamie]

So I talked in another thread about how I wish I could talk to my family, but I'm too afraid that they will laugh at me. I got a suggestion to let them know that people like this were out there, and eventually tell them. I also got the great suggestion to go to or organize a local event with my pod or something and show my fam. This was an awesome suggestion, but I thought it could be a little sudden. Also, I live in the big city. I'm not sure if there are any mers nearby. The city isn't really an ideal place to swim...
Any thoughts/suggestions?

[malinghi]

Where do you live? I think hanging out with mers so your family becomes aware that this is a thing before you share that you're into it is a good strategy.

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[MermanJamie]

Like my bio says, I live in NYC or New York, New York, the Big Apple or whatever you want to call it. I don't know of any mers in the city, though it's huge, so I'm willing to bet there are mers somewhere.

[malinghi]

If you join the pod of New England on Facebook that includes new York. You could meet people through there. I don't know how often they meet up but you could propose a meet up. Also there will almost certainly be a meet up at the Coney island Mermaid parade in a couple weeks.

[MermanJamie]

I don't have a facebook. Should I get one?

[malinghi]

It might be useful for meeting people. A lot of people use it for organising events and hangouts.

[MermanJamie]

Ok, I will try to get one soon. It will probably be a separate account from if I make a personal account, because if my family are constantly policing my social media, I wouldn't want them to see that, as I'm not comfortable with talking to them yet, but hopefully this will help.

[fabianfrz]

1. You may be able to set some things invisible - even for friends. Half of my profile is set to visible to "me".
2. You can also make a page which more like a separate account.
3. Content of some groups are not visible as the content is only visible to members.
Sometimes even the group is not visible in the memberships.
In case of the MerNetwork group "euro pod" it would be only visible that you are a member of this group.

Note: This does not help if they have your password.

[malinghi]

I also try to keep my involvement in the mermaid community separate from my regular Facebook account. I have a separate profile for it.

Be aware that having a separate profile may not be enough to keep your activity in the mermaid community hidden from your family. Facebook can tell that both accounts are being accessed from the same device, so they'll know the second profile is somehow connected to your regular profile. It's likely that Facebook will encourage people on your friends list to connect with your second profile as well. There's not much you can do about this, so the best approach is to set everything you can to private on the second profile and use a profile photo where you can't be recognized.

It's annoying to put up with Facebook's diligent efforts to out you, but it's probably worth it since Facebook is pretty useful for planning in person meetups.

[Slim]

He is very right on this. The only way you can avoid the issue describe is to log in on the 2nd account on a different device. If you have only one device, you may need to look into using a different OS on the same machine. Like have a dual window/mac pc or running the mer facebook account only inside bluestack while accessing your main account on windows. It's a pain but it really the only way you are going to avoid those facebook suggestions.

I also try to keep my involvement in the mermaid community separate from my regular Facebook account. I have a separate profile for it.

Be aware that having a separate profile may not be enough to keep your activity in the mermaid community hidden from your family. Facebook can tell that both accounts are being accessed from the same device, so they'll know the second profile is somehow connected to your regular profile. It's likely that Facebook will encourage people on your friends list to connect with your second profile as well. There's not much you can do about this, so the best approach is to set everything you can to private on the second profile and use a profile photo where you can't be recognized.

It's annoying to put up with Facebook's diligent efforts to out you, but it's probably worth it since Facebook is pretty useful for planning in person meetups.