52Photos Project - Busy Street

Unfriend vs. Unfollow – What’s your Facebook choice?

I remember a FB (Facebook) friend, who was a colleague in one of those workplaces I had been to, who told me to just set my privacy settings so that I will not be ‘unfriending’ or ‘rejecting the request of’ the person but instead click the privacy buttons in order not to see any of the person’s posts.  It was said to that effect, not able to remember exactly his words. His concern must be that I would offend somebody knowing him to be that kind and friendly.

I did not heed the advice.  There were instances where I had accepted people in Facebook who were not really my friends in the truest sense of the word, and some of them are not even acquaintances but strangers.  (Well, a big part of those in my ‘FB friends’ list are actually strangers because I have not met them in person but in all its fairness to the concept of ‘FB friend’ I had gotten to know some of them through some friends, and through blogging and other forms of media, plus theirs posts or statuses).  If a FB friend’s post becomes unintelligible and/or offensive, or could be something I will be undesirably involved, I decide to ‘unfriend’.    Lately, I only ‘unfollow ‘ remembering that friend’s concern of offending somebody’s feelings; then decide finally, after a few days or weeks depending on circumstances, to ‘unfriend’.  I am usually quiet or reticent about this decision not to cause any mess.