Facebook users should check to see the number of “friends” they have on Facebook. Think about who your “friends” are on Facebook. ? Comedian Jimmy Kimmel encourages users to clean out their “friends” list. Users should delete anyone that they do not have contact with anymore, or would not consider themselves friends or acquaintances. Kimmel has deemed Nov. 17 as national “un-friend” day in which users should take the day to delete any person from their friend list, in which they do not wish to keep in contact with. Many times people will meet a friend through a friend. In this case, if the users are still friendly, it is the users choice to remain friends on Facebook. However, users are encouraged to deny any friend request from a person they do not know. ?
People with online social networks often accept friend requests from people they met a few times through a friend. For users who have met a friend’s friend briefly and will not talk after the brief meeting, these users are encouraged to delete the person from their friend list. ?
Cleaning out the friends list also gives users the chance to message old friends or to contact someone that a user may have lost touch with over time. Social networks such as Facebook can be used as a convenient method to keep in touch with good friends, old friends and friends who sporadically want to keep in touch.
Newsfeed provides several guidelines on their web site helping users decide which friends on Facebook to delete. On the web site newsfeed.time.com, an article provides 10 types of friends users should delete from their friend list. This list includes anyone you do not personally know, someone you would not talk to on the street or that would not say hi to you, and anyone that you do not wish to see updated photographs, personal statuses, or wall postings.
Newsfeed also encourages users to delete relatives, especially parents, who comment on all updated statuses and recent photographs. Deleting an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend from a friend list can prevent from users from reading about their new relationships. Facebook users should delete any friend that they do not wish to see certain photographs, wall comments or status updates. Instead of hiding the friend from these, simply delete them. This may be a parent, a neighbor, a colleague, employer, teacher, or anyone that a user does not want to see something a friend would post on their online social network profile page.
According to the web site www.newsfeed.time.com, friends who use Facebook only as a source to write negative statuses can affect the moods of other users. If a friend affects one’s mood poorly, by deleting the person as a friend online, the negative status updates will not flood a user’s newsfeed.
If a user typically hides someone from their updated statuses on their home newsfeed page, the web site Newsfeed recommends users “un-friend” people rather than block them online.
The web site www.newfeed.time.com also recommends that users delete friends who invite them to events they would not be interested in attending. The web site says this person may be inviting all of their friends as oppose to inviting people they would like to see at the event. The web site also recommends to “un-friend” people who send a number of quizzes and game invitations, and have no other contact with the user.
People who are your friends on Facebook should be people you care about enough to want to share your updates with online as well as in everyday life. Check your friend count, and ask yourself how many of them are really friends.
Ginger Rae Dunbar is a fourth-year student majoring in English with a minor in journalism. She can be reached at RD655287@wcupa.edu.