Deleting a Friend

Facebook, overall, has been a pretty cool thing in my life. I've reconnected with some friends of ole, I get to touch base pretty regularly with some other friends I wouldn't otherwise, and even made some "friends" through other friends. So that's all pretty cool, right?

Then occasionally, I'll have someone that I sorta know make a friend request. It seems mean to say no, so if I know who they are, I usually accept.

Some of those people end up being pretty funny and I like reading what they have to say. Others, well, not so much. They either never post anything, or never even bother to say hi to me and I wonder why they made a friend request in the first place. Or they post excessively and seem to take over my page with announcements about themselves.

Earlier tonight I had posted something up, and one of the FB friends I had forgotten about, one of those that had never done anything but send the friend request months ago, made some snarky comment that really rubbed me the wrong way. First I responded to her comment with my own snarky comment. Then I got so ticked off just thinking about the snarky-isms that I thought, "Why don't I just delete her?"

I not only deleted her, but her comment that set me off in the first place, and the rude one I fired back at her. And it felt so satisfying. To know that she is off my list. Done. To her I say, "You are not my friend anymore. You don't get to get up in my business for one more minute. (Unless you happen to read my blog!) I don't have to hear anything you've got to say again. And my Facebook page, by the way, is no longer a means for you to advertise yourself."

In lots of ways, Facebook is easier than the real world. We can connect with people, but from the privacy of our own home while in our pajamas. We can flip through our friends vacation as fast as we want without the risk of hurting their feelings. We can talk with our friends during the wee hours of the night when we just can't sleep. And perhaps best of all, you can delete a friend with the simple push of a button.