Unfriended?

Recently I was considering "unfriending" an acquaintance on Facebook, that insipid time-suck. This person and I are obviously on opposing sides of everything important to me - civility, politics, drugs, social justice - everything. I discussed this with a new friend, who advised me without really giving me an opinion not to do it. He cited an article that discussed the demoralizing effect of "unfriending" and didn't say much more. I decided not to do it.

Yesterday, through a series of time-suck-related events, I discovered that someone I was very, very close to at one point had "unfriended" me. Without getting too far into things, I'll say that it was indeed demoralizing. It was hurtful, cruel, personal, even a little heartbreaking. I sent new unfriend a message that consisted only of the word "Unfriended?". I received a longish reply a little while later that just ground the cigarette butt of the injury home. In my eye.

From this experience I've learned a few things:

• I have awesome friends who always have my back.
• Co-dependent friendships cannot survive a healthy party.
• I am fucking glad I didn't "unfriend" aforementioned dumb acquaintance. I think he's a douche, but he has feelings that aren't mine to throttle.
• Facebook might be a rotten place to spend a lot of time.

Thanks for listenin'.