Hate on facebook

Jessobear

I did this a while back on "National Unfriend Day". At first I thought it was a pretty funny joke, but once you started axing people it actually became sort of empowering.

I'm 34 but have had a Facebook account for a long time because the interns in my office all had it and they insisted we all join so that they could tag us in photos they took when we did happy hour after work. For a long time (years) I had very few friends and then almost overnight, everyone my age somehow got clued into the fact that Facebook existed and they all friend requested me. Since I knew these people, I accepted all the requests but found that none of them had any interest in reconnecting. They just wanted to see what I was doing, if I got fat, got married, etc.

All those people got the ax on National Unfriend Day. I pared it down to people I actually speak to at least once a year and family members (who quite honestly I really don't want viewing my profile, but how can you not accept a request from them?).

When used like that, Facebook is a really useful tool for one main reason: photo sharing. Beyond that, if you've moved across the country like I did, it's useful for keeping in touch with old friends back where you're from, who you may only see once or twice a year.