How to tackle that friend who bugs you with overwhelming forward messages 😫

Some friends are really a little bit too much!

Overwhelming Messages

Good friends are really fantastic to have as they give us company, absorb our pressure in times of difficulties, and participate with us to share fruitful memories in life. But not all friends are the same. Some are buggers and master advisors. They keep on bugging us with their overwhelming forward messages consisting of inspirational quotes, links to articles, and doses of positivity which they themselves do not heed or follow.

They may be over-enthusiastic in sharing more information with us to show off that they are updated or that they are with high thoughts. But in this age of information, everyone has access to any type of information at their vim and fancies, yet thinking that only one has access and another doesn’t is totally lacking in touch with reality. Moreover, not everyone is interested in a similar type of information, and then bombarding with information from social media is purely information overload.

How to tackle this over-enthusiastic and information-bombarding friend?

There are three methods to do so:

1. Ask them why they believe in a particular piece of information
2. Ask them to give a summary of the information
3. Keep silent if method 1 or 2 doesn’t work

Let’s see how to apply these

1. Ask them why they believe in a particular piece of information

Doing this will instantly take them off guard as they themselves haven’t understood the information and was a mere middleman. It requires effort to think and when questioned further more people will not ask for any more information and remain silent. This will also make sure that they think twice next time before forwarding the information.

2. Ask them to give a summary of the information

If the information is a link, ask them to give a summary or synopsis, or gist of the information. This will make sure that the person forwarding the information has read the information. Most probably the friend would have just seen the heading and out of excitement would have forwarded the message.

3. Ignore if method 1 or 2 doesn’t work

This is the last option. Silence is the best response. The person will eventually drain out when they don't get any response and will understand that no importance or attention is given to the message. This strategy will mostly work but it can also end the friendship as the friend would have become disappointed.

There is a rare possibility that the person forwarding has already read and understood the information. These are usually geeks and these types of friends are genuine and good to have if the information type matches your field of interest.