Today is National Unfriend Day!

Happy National Unfriend Day! That's right today (11-17-20) is National Unfriend Day. A special day set aside each year where we browse our friends list on Facebook, Twitter and all the other social media platforms and thin the herd. So how and when did this, dare we say it, holiday start? It's beginnings can be traced back to the year 2010 when Jimmy Kimmel named November 17th as "National Unfriend Day."

So why is there a National Unfriend Day? Well the simple truth is we all have a lot of friends on social media, but in all reality we aren't close with them and don't really know them that well. So are they really friends? Maybe acquaintances, but not friends. At least in the truest sense of the word. These are people who we interact with occasionally online that for whatever reason we call friends. There's a lot of people I'm "friends" with on social media that I've never even met in real life. I think most of us can say that.

Even so I have to say I enjoy having these virtual friends, or friends of friends online. I like seeing all the different stuff on my news feed from pictures, videos and memes. So even if I really don't know you, we can still be friends. I've never confused social media with real friends or people I rely on and interact with in day to day life. I'd say most of the friends I have online are just people I kind of know that have funny memes.

I can say that I've never unfriended anyone. I guess I've never really gotten that offended or upset by someone else to bother with it. It's crazy but some people can actually scroll, see something they disagree with, or are upset by and keep scrolling. How wonderfully adult of them! I don't suffer from convictions of convenience or need the monotonous approval of others to validate my thoughts and opinions. We can agree or disagree, I could really care less. Even when someone objects to something I've said or posted, or maybe I've offered my two cents to someone else's post or opinion, it really doesn't upset me.

These days most people are unable to separate opinion from person which is sad. Then we end up in an echo chamber where everyone we know and associate with, even if it's just a "friend" on social media has to think and feel exactly like us. I like having different points of view and opinions, it makes things interesting and occasionally I learn something. Unfortunately too often when someone asks your opinion on something what they're really interested in is seeing if your onion and there's match. If not they have to decide if they will unfollow, unfriend, block, boycott or attempt to cancel and silence you...