Too Much Information

Sometimes people share to the internet because they are unable to share in real life. Loneliness can create an intimacy with a computer in a way you would normally have with a best friend. Lacking that, it's easy to over-share in a public (yet deceptively private) medium.

My mother had a horrendous childhood - nightmare stuff.
My grandmother passed away in 1986.
Mom was very busy - raising us, earning her Masters, working, and then retiring, traveling, being involved in a new relationship.
And then her boyfriend died, and a lot of her other friends are passing away, too.
She's 77, living alone, is comfortable and is not dealing with anything else.
And I find she's telling me more about her childhood and the things she suffered through.
All her life she's been to busy to come to grips with it.
NOW she's got the time - and I am a good listener - and a heck of a lot cheaper than any counselor (which she doesn't believe in).
Sometimes when people 'share' - they are just working through their emotions and putting them in order or putting them to rest.
It can be a factor in grieving.
It's nice if there is someone who will listen to them, but these days I can see where some would put it all out there on Facebook.

People tend to use FB as an anonymous venting place. Sometimes you have to remember that people read that stuf!

When emotions run high, good judgment often gets pushed aside. In the meantime, make use of the FB "Hide" feature.

There have ALWAYS been certain people who over share. It's nothing new, just a particular human personality/temperament. We are only more aware of it because of the rise of social media.
If it gets too much for me I just hide them from my news feed, I like to keep my life as drama free as possible!

A combination of inordinate grief combined with unresolved relationship issues, then factor in age and regrets and you have someone without the capacity to discern that FB is not the appropriate place to share all. She will probably regret this decision too one day.

I do not understand either. I am shocked about what some people I know post. I've started deleting and hiding people from my page.

For me, it is not so much the topic you are addressing here but Gees, I don't need to know everytime the new baby goes poop or what you eat for lunch. TMI

I do believe that they forget how many people see the postings and pictures. I had a cousin post her 2 yr old boy naked on the big potty propped backwards going pee.... really?? I blocked... I don't want it on my laptop.

Well, we really don't know, because we don't know this person, or their history.

If you feel she is oversharing, then just "hide" her posts from your timeline, and move on. What she posts is up to her, and her alone. You cannot control her, but you CAN choose whether or not you want to see her posts.

What Bmama and Mum4ever said, plus...

Although her "friends" can theoretically cut and paste her words and share them with others, her FB friends might be made up of people with whom she just doesn't mind sharing this info. It could be her equivalent of a group e-mail. Also, there is a FB feature that allows one to decide who gets to see what is posted. Your daughter's MIL might have carefully selected who gets to see the stuff that she's saying about her mother. Because she isn't addressing it to your name or your daughter's name makes it feel like more of a billboard for all the world to have full access to, but that might not be the case at all.

Please hover your mouse over her name then click on show in newsfeed. When it's unchecked her posts will not show up on your wall.

Problem solved.

That said. She is doing what most people do. If you don't want to see it then do the above steps and you won't see her posts at all unless you go to her wall to see what she has to say.

The drama is sometimes fun....sometimes it is riveting and other times it so off the wall and foul. I have a cousin that uses language that I didn't want the kids to walk up behind me and ask "Grandma, what does x.x.x.x.x.x spell and what does it mean"....so he doesn't show up on my wall. But I don't want to un-friend him, I enjoy a lot of his posts and shares. I just don't like the words he uses sometimes. So I go to his wall when the kids are in bed.

You can also limit everyone's posts on your wall by hovering your mouse over their names then clicking on settings. Un-check everything except status updates and you won't get anything they don't type in a post themselves.

I un-check everything except games on people I am only friends with for the purpose of games. I don't know them and don't care to see the stuff they have going on in their lives. So I only see their game posts.

I actually think its pretty funny when people do that, especially on fb. Some people never get over acting like they are in middle school. My all time favorite is when they put something like Im so mad, you know who you are that made me mad, lol. Or I have one friend that is constantly whining about not having a man and being overweight, every time I see it on her fb, I have to fight the urge to put, 'why dont you get off fb and go to the gym then.' She also puts things like, now I know who my real friends are. I finally put her on ignore. Also there is a married couple on that I know, they are now divorced, that were constantly fighting on there. The best was she saw him complement another girls new profile picture so she threw all his clothes in the front yard and posted pictures of it.

Its attention seeking behavior. Laugh at it if you can, or put them on ignore. Tell your daughter to be prepared for the whole world to know if she ever gets into a fight with her MIL.