The unfriend, the unfollow, the ever so quiet ‘I don’t like you’ button, the ‘you’re boring’ button. In reality- we are incredibly connected to so many more people than we might have been in our normal everyday lives. Instead of a group of 10 close friends, we can share everything with hundreds of people, only now we, have to option to remove them, slyly.
Digitally. It matters now. It matters to Mavis that woman you met on holiday 4 years ago, you both promised to keep in touch, now she finds herself unceremoniously thrown out of the ‘Friends’ and into the ‘People you may know’. It hurts the person behind the avatar, the one posting things that they find interesting. We have been programmed to share everything, the little things, the big things. People have put wedding invites, birth announcements and birthday party invites on Facebook. Not even the joy of a nicely printed or handwritten card appearing on your doorstep. You have probably shared something that not everyone liked too.
Gone are the days where if you no longer wanted to be friends it was a ‘in person’ thing, you told that person or at least made it obvious. Now, now we have the sly digital age of ignorance; I will unfollow, because it won’t matter, I will unfriend, because they won’t notice.
On the internet, as is in life, people notice. Their time and effort are invested into building that page, blog, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace page, Bebo and LinkedIn.
It hurts equally if a person says you are ugly to your face as it would behind a screen.
When did it happen that we cared so little for people, that we can cast them out as quickly as we invited them in with that little ‘follow’ button?
Thoughts as always are more than welcome here 🙂
