HOW-TO Unfriend Someone

Find his or her name in your list of friends, and click the little “x”. That’s all there is to it.

The top referrals to my site come from people searching for something along the lines of “How to unfriend someone.” It’s really not that hard, it’s not something you should be taking tons of time to think about. It’s not serious. You’re not blacklisting them, (unless you are actually going to block them, which is recommended in some cases) you just don’t consider them really good friends. Like, real-life friends, not the bastardized term “friend” we use on the internet.

If you’re considering unfriending someone, it’s the right thing to do. You can always friend him again, later. “But,” you say, “won’t they be offended?” Maybe. But seriously, if you’re done having him on your friends list, why do you care? Someone who makes you feel obligated to friend them is far from a friend, he’s a leech.

Facebook for almost all people is a collection of names and nothing more. It’s not a network of trusting and trusted friends. It’s a phone book with pictures.

You don’t have to friend your boss, you don’t have to friend your coworkers. You don’t have to friend anyone you don’t want to. If you’re worried that your boss will be mad at you, then you have a pretty terrible job, and a much bigger problem than internet etiquette.

Imagine a world where your friends list is populated only by close, real-life friends. People you trust with your personal thoughts and feelings, people you can count on to help you out and who you want to help. You know, friends. Wouldn’t that be great? Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to censor your thoughts about something because you’re worried the wrong person might see it?

Oh, and if you’re thinking, “But what if a real friend on my list sees something I’ve written and then passes it on to someone else?” Well, if you’re concerned about someone doing that, then he’s not your friend.

Unfriend him.

Out of the Loop

It's remarkable, the anxiety caused by being out of the loop, which itself was caused by anxiety.

The past few weeks have been so stressful and depressing that I haven't had the energy to even watch tech news, let alone keep up with all the blogs I need to be reading. And I do mean need. My job sort of requires that I keep up-to-date with SEO/M news, and my position in the company is defined by my ability to keep on top of these things, to be the guy who knows what's going on online.

And right now I have no idea. It's paralyzing, I'd say, to stare at all these RSS feeds without any idea where to start. Knowing that there isn't enough time for me to get caught up, knowing that I'll just have to start fresh, and hope that nothing really important happened last week.

If anyone knows any big news that someone involved in internet marketing and social media should be aware of, I'd really appreciate you dropping some links.

Lessons My Facebook Taught Me

It's only been a few years since people en masse started using Facebook, and probably only about a year since everybody started using it.

For now, you can get away with your company website being Flash-only, being an entirely creator-defined experience. For now you can have splash pages and a navigation that doesn't allow for tabbing, and un-copyable images.

For now.

Eventually people who've had their internet experience defined by Facebook are going to expect this experience to come with them across the web. They'll expect interaction and control over their experience on your website, too.

People will expect websites to deliver what they want, what they're looking for, when they want it. They won't watch your intro, they won't send your link to their friends if they can only link to the first page. Don't expect them to.

Are you ready for that? Have you come to terms with that yet? Or are you still designing or commissioning websites with splash pages (speed bumps and warning signs that tell your users to turn back now), and single-page Flash-only sites that don't allow for direct linking to content?

How long do you think that can last?

Not long enough to justify still doing it.