A Facebook friend has de-friended me.
Who? I haven’t a clue.
Do I care? In reality, no. In virtual world, yes.
I received no warning it was about to happen. There was no notice
on my Facebook page. There was no email from Facebook telling me who suddenly
thought less of me and de-friended me. I just happened to click on my Friends
page and noticed the number of my Facebook friends had decreased by one.
One. Person. De-friended. Me.
I know I shouldn’t care because I’ve still got hundreds of
Facebook friends, but in the virtual world in which I roam, I’ve created a
Michael who is flawless. He’s funny and witty and charming, and he’s someone
everyone would love to befriend if they knew he existed.
A tidal wave of shame washed over me. What did I do to force
that person to make the virtual decision to de-friend me?
Why? Why? Why would someone ever de-friend me?
My virtual ego was drowning in sorrow. I tried soothing it
with reality world red wine. Luckily, after many glasses, the reality red wine
made me see things clearer and I staggered to the couch and fell asleep.
The person who de-friended me could very well be someone I’ve
never seen outside the virtual world. The person who de-friended me could be a
passing acquaintance in the real world who Facebook friended me and moved into
my virtual world, never to be seen in my real world again.
I’ve learned that in the virtual world, the quality of
friends now seems to be of lesser value than the quantity of friends. Virtual
friends trump Reality friends. It’s
easier interacting with virtual friends rather than putting on our pants and
leaving the computer to venture outside and meet people to do real people
things like face to face conversation.
With the personas we create online, are the people we friend
on Facebook people we would ever want to be friends with in the real world? Would
we want to have dinner with or share a deep and meaningful conversation with
them?
In my head, I know I should leave the keyboard behind and let
me fingers do something else, but once I sit in front of that computer, the
Virtual Michael comes alive and cannot seem to stop….
Real world. Virtual world. Which one is best? I prefer to live
in the real world… but when it’s late at night and there’s nothing good on TV
and I don’t want to go to sleep…
I’m a smart man, and I know the difference between real and
virtual, and I know the real world is best for me, but still, I want to know
who the fuck de-friended me.
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