Tuesday, March 16, 2010

1096 - Defriending

Defriending can bruise your 'digital ego'

Here are some outtakes from an article about online defriending. It raises several interesting points.

"She sent an e-mail saying, 'I only connect with people I know, and hopefully our paths will cross one day,' " said Fogel, of Phoenix, Arizona, her voice still carrying notes of disbelief. "I read that, and I said, 'Oh, my God, I've been rejected.' "

Well maybe not. Maybe she just doesn't want to have 5,000 friends.

Experts say rejection on social networks can hurt worse than an in-person snub because people are usually more polite face-to-face than they are online.

Well Duhhhh. The anonymity of online can make some people go crazy.

"You have no facial expression online; you have no tone of voice online; it's very easy to misinterpret phrasing in an e-mail.

Been there done that. Sometimes I go back and read something I've written and think, "What was I trying to say!"

For the whole article go HERE.


 

4 comments:

Jay said...

I've been defriended by a few on Facebook, but never anyone I really knew. They were strangers who I "met" on there, and never heard from again after accepting their friend request. So, it didn't bother me.

I've also been unfollowed by many people on twitter. In fact, I was unfollowed by 12 people in one day. People are touchy. haha ;-)

Bilbo said...

You might enjoy this link to a song from last week's "Prairie Home Companion," about the trauma of being "unfriended." It's hysterical.

http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=phc/2010/03/13/phc_20100313_64&starttime=00:03:42.0&endtime=00:07:29.0

Mike said...

J - I'm not on facebook or twitter so I don't have any friends. I know, it's sad.

B - Speaking of sad, PHC doing a defriending song? Somehow it just doesn't fit lakewoebegone.

The Mistress of the Dark said...

I've been defriended on Livejournal, but most people that do that are people that I only knew online..so are they really friends?