A friend posted as part of her status that she is saddened by how people dismiss their friends with just a click of the mouse. No phone call, no face to face encounter, not even a "Dear John" letter. I have also been musing on this topic for some time.
First of all, there are as many different FB styles as there are different people! I, for one, choose my friends on FB with care and consideration. If you are my FB friend, you have either been a friend for years or you are someone that I appreciate and want to get to know better. There are others who just want to see how many friends they can have on FB.... they could be your brother's friends' cousin's girlfriend's aunt for all they care. It's just an opportunity to connect with people. And then there are those that fall somewhere in between.
Second, there are people who manage their friends list on a regular basis. For example, if you didn't wish them Happy Birthday, bye bye! (on a side note, if you use the FB iPod app that I use, you will probably miss lots of birthdays because they are buried inside the events menu... not as easy as on the desktop version where birthdays are announced in bold on the right hand side of your newsfeed)
Third, I wonder how many people out there know that you can manage your newsfeed. If you are tired of hearing my posts about the weather and how I am becoming a Hobbit by eating breakfast for 3 meals a day... You can hide me from the Newsfeed. We are still friends. I still see your updates, but in order to see mine, you must actually go to my wall/timeline... Whatever it is currently called.
Fourth, sometimes it is FB's fault and accidents happen. During a particular day, your friend count can fluctuate on FB for no apparent reason. One day, my friend got a phone call from her friend asking why she had disappeared from FB. My friend was in shock. She had never deleted that person. All is well because someone picked up the phone. Then there is my cousin. We still have no clue what happened. Not only did I get deleted, his account actually blocked me....If I hadn't found other methods of communication, our only chance to talk would be Christmas cards!
So, before you unfriend someone on FB, take the time to think about it and maybe pick up the phone and give them a quick call. Friends are precious.
Great post, Toucan :) So true. I'm on Facebook for numerous reasons. At first it was to keep in touch with all my family, friends, and students since I now live on an island far, far away from them. Now, it's for that reason and also because of my work with social media, I have to be on there pretty much all the time.
ReplyDeleteI have never unfriended anyone. I only have people on there that I want in my life. I may not be able to respond to everyone all the time (I've got a lot of contacts on there - especially now for work purposes). I don't always get everyone's updates because my stream is so busy. I do pop by every now and then to comment. We do what we can, right? :)
Exactly! :)
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