We're coming up on the fourth year of my having joined Facebook (which should tell any marketers out there that I am NOT an early adopter), easy for me to remember as the impetus for my participation was getting Betty White to host SNL (no -- that's not true at all -- it was about the fact that my high school. 20th reunion was being planned on the site and I wanted to be up to date about that event). I think I've finally learned to not take personally the act of unfriending.
When it comes to me and my Facebook, I'm more a fan of the "block" vs. "unfriend". After all, if I'm pushed to the level of needing to take that kind of action, then wiping you and your name and your images and your comments off the face of my virtual vista just seems all the more appropriate.
Of course, considering all scenarios, you might have dropped off of my friend list because you died. Although I'm not sure if estate law has progressed to cover that scenario. What happens to your FB after your die? Does it remain as an archive of your life (as if so, I might reconsider a post or two along the way)? Is it a new modern responsibility of the executor to provide timely notice of your demise to all your friends before shutting down your account? Or do you just go "status-update-silent" and no one really knows you've passed -- they just assume you're too angry at the current administration to bother commenting any longer and that you're on a self-imposed Facebook freeze?
To bastardize a quote from Bush (the Son), Facebook "is hard". It's not for everyone. It's key to be thick-of-skin and hard-of-heart to deal with, to bastardize a quote from William (the Shakespeare), "the slings and arrows of outrageous Facebook fortune". Many a soul has chosen "not to be" when it comes to staying active. And that's probably for the better for them. More power to you in your Facebook-free lives.
All that aside, I choose to treat the act of "unfriending" like the most polite of break-ups. You know the ones -- where assurance is given that "it was me, and not you" -- with me in that example being the unfriender and you in that example being me, the unfriended. Follow?
Although I will say this -- the opportunity to win "big" bucks in my 2013 Facebook Birthday construct with the lottery tickets, to those who unfriend me, that chance will clearly be missed (and since the game is set up that we split any funds won, that chance will clearly be missed by both of us).
TIMELY FEEDBACK ON FB AFTER DEATH:
http://mashable.com/2013/02/13/facebook-after-death/
2013 BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION IS ONLY FOR MY FB FRIENDS, NOT MY UNFRIENDS:
http://capcognition.blogspot.com/2013/01/2013-birthday-celebration.html
ALTERNATIVES TO UNFRIENDING (I.E. BE INFORMED -- YOU HAVE CHOICES):
http://mashable.com/2013/03/22/facebook-unfriend-tips/
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