The Big Delete

Every day I notice my total number of friends drops a number or two. Most of them are brides I virtually befriended via a wedding website who must now realize a year after their wedding that "quality is more important than quantity" or "the wedding is over and I don't really know ya, so bye-bye."

A nun from grammar school deleted my brother and me. My brother did the unthinkable and confronted her on the big delete. Turns out she de-friended us because as a Mets fan she didn't appreciate his constant pro-Yankees status updates. I got roped in by default for being his sister. In this particular case, I'm a tad relieved because I felt weird having a nun on my page anyway. I'm not exactly religious and I'm rather irreverent at times and was hesitant in "accepting" the request to begin with.

There's a certain feeling that goes along with the big delete. You notice your total number of friends has shifted downward. You go through your 200+ friends wondering who it could be. Maybe it's days or weeks later, then BOOM it hits you like a ton of bricks that you no longer see updates from that chick from your spin class or the guy you slipped your number to in 8th grade. Maybe you're informed on the right side of your screen that everyone's commenting on a photo and suddenly you realize you can't comment. Why not? You've been deleted!

Sometimes it's someone you know personally, a coworker or a friend's sibling. It makes you wonder, "Did I do something wrong?" It's understandable of course if there's a change in the relationship dynamic or if you're no longer working together. Perhaps rumors circulated around the office that spies are reporting fake sick days where folks status updates mentioned they were at the beach. Another common reason for the big delete is the obvious break up. Either you and a friend or significant other had a fall out or your bud dumped someone then insisted you too delete their now ex.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who questions the unavoidable big delete. I can't possibly be the only person who feels a bit strange about it, can I? In fact I once received a very threatening angry email because as a joke I deleted the gf of a then friend of my husband's. She is now a good friend of mine. I deleted her honestly as a joke because she was bombarding the MySpace bulletin board with silly updates. Facebook has the "hide" feature which lets you silence those twittering-style buddies who tend to over-update without hurting their feelings.

Does anyone else out there feel a weird sense of loser-ness upon suffering the big delete? Is there something wrong with me? Just a thought.

As always, thanks for listening.