Unfriending

Unfriending somebody on  facebook is not really as harsh as it seems.  You don’t know them in real life, anyway.  Well, sometimes you might but I have never actually unfriended anybody I knew personally.  I’ve been tempted a couple of times, but the possibility of running into them in real life and having to explain it has always been way too daunting.

I’ve been unfriended a couple of times, too.  One friend from Prague went to teach in Saudi Arabia and I couldn’t help myself from making sarcastic comments re his intention to convert to Islam, which he took very seriously.  He would talk about spiritual clarity  and a feeling of togetherness and I’d mention beheadings, or women being banned from driving, or slave labor.  I guess he got sick of the conversation because he unfriended me.

I could understand why he did it.  From his point of view, unfriending me made sense.  It didn’t wreck my life, or leave me feeling unloved.  In a way, I was kind of relieved.  And, if I ever see him back in Prague, we’ll go out for a cup of tea somewhere because he’s a decent guy even if he chose a religion which is kind of nuts.

Last week, I defriended somebody.  One of my writer ‘friends.’  Well, he was talking about Sonnets so I figure it would be a good time to mention my book ‘155 Sonnets’ which I think is quite relevant to a conversation about Shakespeare, and anybody who has studied Shakespeare should get that just from the title, but he blocked my comment.

So, I unfriended him.  The main reason I am on facebook, the main reason I use the internet at all, is self-promotion.  I’ve written some kickass books, I want people to read them.

I play fair.  I don’t interject them at random.  I don’t belabor the point.  And I leave a link where they can be read for free. (top bar, this page.  click on poetry.)

My page, he said.  Not really what we were talking about, he said, when I asked if he’d blocked me.  So I unfriended him.

I haven’t missed him.  Not even a little bit.