Facebook Friend Policy

I have a confession to make.  I am a Facebook Defriender.  That’s right, I remove people from my facebook friend list.  Now let me explain why.

First of all I believe facebook is a media for friends to communicate, friend implies that there is a relationship outside of facebook – be it family, people I work with, people I spend time with, etc.  If my primary mode of communication with you is from facebook, then there is a high likely hood that I will unfriend you.   Especially if that is the ONLY communication medium we’ve had in the last 6 months. 

Second, I am the person that you need to be in relationship with to be my friend on facebook.  If you are a friend of a friend that I met once at a house party, or if you are a friend/classmate/girlfriend of my brothers that I only know through my brothers, or someone I had a class with in college, then in all truth you have no reason to be my facebook friend.  It’s not that I don’t pray for you, it’s not that I think you’re not a nice/good person, it’s just that you aren’t someone I would otherwise be in contact with.  Now, if outside of facebook we become friends and spend time together, then we can be facebook friends.  

Third, I express my views on facebook, and even facebook has trolls.  I get enough grief from my family about believing the “wrong” thing from their point of view.  Why in the name that of all that is good and lovely in this universe would I open myself to people that have a limited connection to me, so they won’t even attempt to phrase things nicely because I’m family.  (I hate trolls!)

Fourthly, if I know you from some other social networking site, I am far more likely to give you my skype address than to allow you to be my facebook friend.  Mostly because, again, there is a wealth of information about a person on facebook, even if they are really careful because they don’t want their students to find them and attempt to facebook friend them.  But it is information I don’t want to give to a total stranger –and truth be told, if I haven’t met you in person, you are a total stranger. 

Lastly, like everything personal there are exceptions, there will be some people that I allow to be facebook friends or keep as facebook friends even if they don’t meet the above criteria.  I have my reasons for doing this, but those will not be explained.

Now, there is a possibility that I am your friend on facebook when you read this, and then not your friend on facebook because I am going through my annual purge of facebook.  Please remember that I am not removing you because you are a bad person.  In all honesty I probably think you are a good person.  But as I have stated above, if you and I don't have a real relationship outside of facebook, I am not going to have a fake relationship with you in facebook.