I know what you writers are about to say: “It isn’t ‘unfriend’ it is ‘defriend’ ”
Well I have news for you guys!
(Speaking of Facebook, be sure to Like this blog!)
The Word of the Year for 2009 is “Unfriend” as announced by The New Oxford American Dictionary (OAD). (Though maybe the past tense “unfriended” might not be a word …yet.)
Think about how easy it is to unfriend somebody: You go to your friend’s list and click on the little X next to it, Facebook asks you if you’re sure, and you reassure them that you have made your decision and BAM! Defriended!
“OMG! I like totally can’t believe we weren’t Facebook friends yet!”
I saw that message when I received a friend request from someone I removed from my friend’s list because I kept getting invites for FarmVille, and then to join their Mafia, and Restaurant City, etc. And to be quite honest, I had never really had a conversation with her, not online and not in person.
I’m not very sure of what I was thinking when I removed her from my friend’s list, maybe I didn’t realize that things could turn out awkward some day. Facebook should try to relieve the awkwardness!
Update: Supposedly now there is an awkward ‘unfriended’ feature on Facebook. Be sure to check out the articles at the bottom of this post!
Dear Facebook,
When I unfriend someone, please do not allow them to find out that I did so by having me show up on their people you may know feature, it tends to make things a bit awkward. Even though I can’t blame you for not being aware of this, I would also suggest that you stop showing my past girlfriends’ new boyfriends on that list as well, no matter how many friends in common we may have. Oh and fix your chat feature.
Sincerely,
Me
Image source
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For those of you Facebook users out there, we should start a blogging community group! Some of you might already be a part of online blogging communities, and you know all of the advantages that come from such groups:
- Develop new ideas!
- Writings tips
- Lots of new subscribers!
- Get to meet people with similar interests
- ..and a chance to share your thoughts with fellow bloggers!
Related articles
- HOW TO: Use the New Facebook to See Who Has Unfriended You (mashable.com)
- 10 Reasons Those People Unfriended You (buzzfeed.com)
- Facebook’s Timeline Doesn’t Identify Who Unfriended You (allfacebook.com)
This airs out something I dislike about Facebook, and may in fact explain why I reserve it for mostly family, and feel more comfortable on Twitter. On Twitter, if you drop and refollow at will it’s normal use.
Very true, on Twitter anything goes! That’s the cool thing about it. Now if we could only get rid of all the spammers on there..
Can I add you on facebook? Hahaha. I used to get so many invites like that as well, but I think you actually have the option to block the invites from specific applications or particular persons, so you don’t really need to unfriend them (but if you actually wanted to do that, that’s another case). I used to block invites from specific applications in order to stop the invitations. I’ve had some people defriend me on facebook as well, though, and I usually pretend that I didn’t know we’re not friends yet on facebook, haha.
Of course you can add me!
Thanks for the tip, I think I could’ve saved some Facebook friendships by playing around with the options instead of removing them.. hahaha, oh well. They’re gone (except for the ones that requested me again and I added once more). And being unfriended is awkward too, sometimes I see my friend list shrink a little bit, and I’m like “WHOA who removed me?” But then again, there’s a possibility that someone out there removed their account. I tell myself that to make me feel better. lol
This was one of the reasons I hated Facebook when I had an account. People who never even talked to me in person would just add me and not say a thing. When I defriended them, they’d add me again. Why? I have a feeling some of them just wanted to have a lot of friends.
Agreed! You removed your account?
Ugh…I hate when this happens!! Every couple of months, I go through my FB friends list to see if I’ve had ANY sort of contact with people; if not, I delete them. In fact, I did this last week and unfriended (I think it’s a word…) one girl that I had kept on the list for 3 years because she was an acquaintance we had so many friends in common. I realised that during the ENTIRE 3 years that we were FB friends, she had never once sent me a message, commented on anything, or even liked anything from me (I think she is just a FB snoop), so, naturally, I deleted her.
12 hours later I got a friend request from her…apparently she had noticed that she was no longer on my list.
I declined the friend request, and I will do it again to someone else if I have to! lol
See! That’s exactly what happens. I’m surprised Facebook doesn’t announce “So and so unfriended you” they seem to be pretty good at letting people know of everything.
A FB SNOOP! Hahaha I like that term lol 🙂
I like the sound of making a blogging community. You should start one! I’ll be an admin if you need another; just let me know if you plan on actually making one!
I totally love what you’ve written. Its so true and, well, so Awkward! But I usually use the *block them* feature. I don’t know how many apps and how many people I’ve blocked! Easy.
And yeah, i like the idea of a blogging community. Sounds fun!
Thanks Meghna! And yeah, I should’ve known about the “block” thing.. lol
Awesome! Alright, we’re just getting it started.. here’s a link to the group:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/240976049268613/
Join it and we’ll see ya there! 🙂 Woo hoo! We have this album on there, where you can post a picture, logo, or screenshot of your blog and then add your link to it so we can visit you straight from there, it’s pretty cool!
Edwin
Tell me about it… although I’m one of few who can manage to coldly declining invitations (or just not answering them) or delete people outright for not really knowing me. 😮 And hey it probably happens to me too, but I never really care, because at the end of the day I only want to have fb friends who are actually going to communicate with me.
…annnnd that’s happened to me. When I unfriend you, don’t friend me with BOTH of your FB accounts (and why does she have 2?? Now that’s awkward!) oh, and then she texts me and asks why we aren’t friends anymore…also she sends me a FB message asking me again….So maybe this happens to everyone buuuuuuuut still. haha
I unfreinded some freind of mine and right now I want him to be my freind again.what can I do now?