The Purge

I’m thinking of getting rid of Facebook.

There, I’ve said it. Now let’s see how long it takes for Mark Zuckerburg’s storm troopers to amass outside of my house. Just kidding. Sort of.

I’ve noticed lately that nearly every time I log onto Facebook, I either get enraged or convinced that western civilization is going to, in fact, implode at any moment. Which might be true, and which makes me shudder in disgust, realizing that my last moments on this earth might be spent staring at the status updates of people I hardly know, rather than staring at the beautiful faces of people I love.

That said, I’m a blogger. I don’t think it would be practical to get rid of Facebook altogether. So, I’m just getting rid of some people on Facebook.

One of the big problems with Facebook is that people think they’re entitled to be your friend. They’re not.

Last week I went through and removed maybe about 10-15 people who I didn’t actually know all that well, but whom I had shared a class in grad school or college with.

One of them, who happens to be, a pro-choice, pro-contraception “Catholic”, then sent me a message saying how dare I remove her as a friend just because we don’t agree, etc.

What.the.hell?

Listen crazy, I removed you because we had one class together in grad school and I hardly know you. Yes, the fact that you’re a cafeteria Catholic makes my head want to explode, and no, I don’t want to see your ranting against the Church you claim to be a member of popping up on my wall every day. Sorry? You are not entitled to be my friend on Facebook.

Here’s the thing. If I don’t actually know you that well, and every other thing you post is about how awful the Catholic Church is, I’m un-friending you, because I’m not friends with people who trash-talk my Mother.

I’m not saying you should stop saying what you want, what I’m saying is, I’m going to unfriend you because we’re not friends. So if we haven’t spoken in years, never knew each other that well to start with,  have nothing in common now, and the only time you write on my wall is to criticize my beliefs, don’t take it personally if I remove you. We’re not really friends.

What’s really ironic about the whole Facebook thing is that most of the people I love on Facebook are people I’ve never “met”. They’re other bloggers and moms that I want to be friends with. I wish they lived in my town so I could hang out with them.

So there you go. A Facebook purge. It’s been a long time coming.

Now I’m going to publish this on Facebook.