I have a hard time knowing what to do about facebook.
This isn't a question of deleting it or keeping it, I realized a while back that as much as it is a time-consumer, and encourages narcissistic behaviour, with how spread out across the world many of my friends are, it is extremely helpful in keeping up with those people that I do not get the opportunity to see but once in a decade.
My concern is really about knowing when to keep, and when to delete someone who is your "friend" on facebook. A year and a half ago I deleted over half my friends list, going from 500-something, to just under 200. It was an extremely liberating experience, because no longer were people I spoke to twice in high school, able to see my activity, and a very skewed version of my life. So, I understand deleting people when you have absolutely no reason to keep them. Trust me, I get that.
However, with the two hundred friends I have now, things get a little more complicated.
Family: stays. Regardless of how often I see them, it is nice to at least have a little picture of their lives.
Friends I talk to regularly: stay. Obviously. It wouldn't make sense to drop them.
Friends I was incredibly close to, but now they live super far (read: 5+ hours by car) away from me: stay. I want them in my life. It may be hard to keep in touch, but they are still very important.
The issue comes when there are people I used to be close to, but am no longer close to, but they still live relatively close to me. I have people on my friends list with whom I used to talk to/see every week, if not almost every day. However, now I have hardly any, if any at all communication with them.
The thing is, it's not a simple thing for me to just delete them. Some of these people, I shared everything with. We were incredibly close. Deleting them, even if it's just off a social networking site, seems to mark the end of a friendship. It's stupid, to be sure, but there is an air of finality there. Maybe it is just me, but regardless, that's how I feel.
Some of these people, I regularly pray for. They may not have spoken to me in ages, but just because I am not important enough to be in their lives, does not mean they aren't important enough to need prayer.
If I delete them, am I going to forget to pray for them? If I delete them, do I become the bad guy? The one who ended the friendship? If I DON'T delete them, am I going to be upset when I see an update they've made, wondering why I am not good enough for them to want to continue to be friends with me?
I don't know.
I guess we'll see what I decide.
