Guideline for Defriending Someone on Interpals

Facebook Defriending Allegedly Resulted in Double Murder.  That's the title of a news article that appeared online not too long ago.  It adds another wrinkle to the already complicated scene of internet friendship.  Complicated not only because the internet is like a jungle, but also because it's a relatively new and constantly evolving social scene, many etiquettes of which are either unknown to the users or simply not yet established.

So whom and how should we defriend?  The above named article certainly conveys a sense of urgency for developing such a guideline, or else more innocent people will die   The following represents my very tentative approach to the matter of "whom", and I hope to deal with the matter of "how" on another occasion.

I propose that when you're planning on defriending someone, go through the following checklist to make sure he/she DOES NOT fall into any one of these categories:

1.  is currently incarcerated in a maximum security prison for committing multiple murders, but will be on parole in less than 2 months.

2.  the person happens to be your mother-in-law.

3.  sent you a letter, through his attorney, in a big, legal-sized envelope, in which he stated:  If you defriend me, I WILL KILL YOU !

4.  he's from Australia.

5.  his profile photos are full of images of him supposedly "play-acting" killing his friends, but he's also known to have no friends.

6.  his profile states that he does not accept messages or friendship requests from anyone working in law-enforcement.

7.  he signs his name "Dr. Evil" in his emails.

Finally, if you have followed the above guideline and all your common sense, and STILL receive death threats from someone you just defriended, STAY CALM.  Contact me and I'll try and help you deal with such death threats, VERY personally.

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