Farewell Facebook Friend

The internet is a place in which information is free to float where it may.  Tweet it, facebook it, put it on myspace (but no one will read it there). Pour every meandering thought down into the white rectangle and watch as it affixes itself to cyberspace, to be viewed and judged accordingly by all that see it.

Add to this the fact that friend requests are generally sent out to a plethora of people, including not only your close friends but old classmates, co-workers and distant relatives.  If you belong to one of these sites go take a gander at your friend list…I’ll wait.  I’m going to wager that there are people on it you haven’t seen in years.  There may be some people you don’t even remember.  Look there’s that girl from high school, she sat behind you in Chemistry.  Remember how it took you emailing your friend to even recall who she is before you accepted the request?

Now consider this fact.  Every single status update you have posted since becoming this person’s ”friend” has been broadcast across their main page. 

For some of us, this is no big deal.  So what?  Mindy Whosawhitz knows I like Rilke’s poetry, I got a great deal on a sweater at Target and that I recently celebrated my Grandmother’s birthday….big whoop.  Most people I know update their status with what they are doing at that moment, quotes they like, song lyrics, thoughts on sporting events, movies and books.  From reading these kinds of updates I get to keep up with people I can’t find the time to routinely connect with via another avenue (phone/email/in person) and often I am pointed in the direction of something I would enjoy ( like this).

Other people however….

Today I un-friended someone because they said something hateful about a belief that is not their own.  It is also not a belief that I ascribe to, in the strictest sense, I do not label myself in that way.

It was a short two sentence statement, but dense with hate and misinformation.  In those two lines she managed to completely mischaracterize the religion she was referring to as well as equate its followers with lazy, greedy murders.

It was vile.  I shot her a short message with a correction to her mistake (Humanists do not ”worship” humans) and a brief description of my disgust - clicked the small “X” next to her name thus banishing her to the outside of my circle.

This person wrote something completely hateful as her status, signing her name in big bold letters next to it, her smiling face beaming from her profile picture alongside.

Why would anyone do this?

Perhaps because she thought everyone would agree.

She was wrong.