2009 Word of The Year: Unfriend

The word “Unfriend” was recently named “word of the year” by the New Oxford American Dictionary – I kid you not.

Unfriend: verb; to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Why do you unfriend?

I’ve been unfriended once or twice – mostly by exes. The unfriend has become a powerful phenomenon. It can bring closure, it can hurt feelings, it can break business deals… Maybe one day it may start a war.

I’ve had friends force me to unfriend their boyfriends/girlfriends after they break-up with them. I sometimes unfriend people to avoid having them show up on the “mutual friends” list. Everyone’s got that weird uncle (on Facebook now).

Why do you unfriend?