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WRITING AROUND THE BEND

Friday 14 October 2011

An ‘Unfriend’-ly Proposal


 

Call it delayed reaction or plain old laziness of finer powers to ponder, it is only lately that I spared a thought to the ‘Unfriend’  option on my page in Facebook.  Not being  very e-savvy and hence , rather shy of  exploring the ‘options’ in the digital world , I never used this button till I hit it accidently and what triggered off can only be described as cascading collapse of camaraderie between my  (un)friend  and my very -sorry self. That the friend did not regard this (col)lapse in a friendly light , goes without saying.

A cliché –overused as they are, came to mind-  A friend in need is a friend indeed.
Can one add-
Till with a click,
You bid them god speed,
In carelessness or with ill- intent,
From your Facebook content,
I wish to see you no more..
You have decreed!


And where does this non-person, this non –entity whose existence you have decided to obliterate from your friendly universe go? Is there a place where ‘no friends have gone before’. A black  hole? A point of no  return?

Perhaps there is a  point in getting philosophical over this. Nobody stands   immune from this exile, this fall from grace and friends are too precious to be dealt with as clinically as this. I can honestly confess that faced with such unfriendliness, I would be heartbroken.
Is there a re-friend button too on Facebook ? Or does one go back all the way shamefacedly sending a request to make amends with the friend -turned –foe or worse still a stranger who regards you with coldness ?

What do you think about the ‘unfriend’ option ? Have you used it to regret it later? Have you felt the sting yourself?

2 comments:

  1. Lol... why do you think FB is so 'IN' today. because, life on fb does not come with a baggage... you are connected with everyone,everywhere at anytime. Yet, 'yeh apun ki choice ka mamala hai'. There is no material obligation on anyone. YOU decide the when, what and how of things on FB. Expression is free, ofcourse within realms of public acceptability or in conformity with your projected self facade.

    The 'Friend' icon on Fb is just a name given to a button you click to allow one access to this facade. It just triggers a programmming logic. So, the decision to 'befriend' / 'unfriend' could as well be renamed 'inform' or 'dont inform'. I am sure this would make the whole difference to this friendship dilemma.

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  2. That's a cynical outlook Vikas!!

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