Hey Guys and Gals, Boys and Girls — it’s NATIONAL FACEBOOK “Un-Friend” DAY!
The concept is the brainchild of late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who says he “believes the term ‘friend’ is a sacred thing, but Facebook is cheapening it,” by encouraging all us Facebook’ers to have hundreds or even thousands of so-called “friends” who are anything but. And he just may have a point.
Think about it: how many people did you befriend on Facebook a year or two ago, but have never spoken to or heard from again since the day you added them to your list? Are these people truly friends? According to Jimmy Kimmel, NO they’re not! And we may all just be guilty of misusing the word.
Kimmel suggested this very simple test to determine a true Facebook friend: create a status update that says “I’m moving this weekend. Anyone willing to help?” Whatever responses you do or don’t receive should determine your actual friends. We may all have plenty of acquaintances or people who have come and gone through our lives, such as the person you sat next to in 3rd grade. But are they really a “friend” if you haven’t spoken to or seen them in 20 years, have no plans to speak to or see in the near future, and don’t bother to even maintain some sort of communication with them now that they’ve made it to your Facebook friend list?
So Kimmel has named November 17th NATIONAL FACEBOOK “Un-Friend” DAY, suggesting we use the day to embrace the actual definition of what a friend is, while cutting out the fat of our bloated Facebook “friends” lists with those who should have never made it there in the first place. According to Kimmel, our lives will go on just fine if we don’t keep track of status updates telling us what our old high school Biology partner had for lunch today.
I know people with hundreds of friends on Facebook they never even speak to. Why make them a friend if that's the last time you talk to them? This maybe started as a joke but it makes sense. People sitting in your friend list that you never communicate with or hear from is silly. I'm about to go through my list now and make a few trims.