"I encourage you to cut out some of the friend fat in your life," he said.
Special thanks to Leslie Horn for this guest post. [No, she does not know she was my guest today.]
"Let's face it. We all have those Facebook friends that we don't really know. Whether it's that guy that you once did a group project with in a college anthropology class and never talked to again or the person you can't remember meeting at all, most of us can afford to do some serious editing on our ever-growing friends list. That's why late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has declared Nov. 17 National Unfriend Day.
"Friendship is a sacred thing and I believe Facebook is cheapening it," Kimmel said in a monologue.
The TV personality has enlisted celebrities like William Shatner and Dr. Mehmet Oz to promote the cause on his show. "These people on Facebook: they're not your friends," Shatner deadpanned.
Kimmel listed some guidelines for unfriending:
"If you wouldn't loan someone $50, unfriend them. If you wouldn't invite them to your birthday party, unfriend them. If you wouldn't cry if they got hit by a bus, unfriend them. It doesn't have to be a hostile thing," he quipped.
Kimmel said that he estimates "90 percent of your Facebook friends aren't really your friends at all."
In 2009, "unfriend was selected as the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary and was officially added to the lexicon.
A recent study from a University of Colorado Denver business student examined the reasons why people unfriend their Facebook pals. He found that the main factor in discontinuing a friendship on the social-networking site is persistent, pointless posts. Kimmel says to dump them.
"I encourage you to cut out some of the friend fat in your life," he said."
Watch the following clip from Kimmel to hear more on "NUD: National Unfriend Day."
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So, are you going to do some unfriending on the 17th?? Will I make the cut of being your friend? That is hard because I cry pretty easily so if I heard that the random guy I did a group project with in my anthropology class got hit by a bus, I just might cry...
ReplyDeleteI think I could do some of that on my FB account. I got friended by some guy that you and a couple other California people know that I have no idea who he is. I think he could be un-friended. :)
You know it, Arn! I'm actually pretty consistent with my unfriending. But I've recently become a little more judicious in who I friend, too. You might make the cut... I'll think about it. Loves.
ReplyDeletethis is great!
ReplyDeletefunny thing about this is i started unfriending people today even before i read this!
I LOVE IT.
Hahahaha. I'll never cut you, Ash. But I'll admit, I've been known to do some Facebook spring cleaning.
ReplyDelete- Cait