Robert Bluey, who heads up the online efforts for the Heritage Foundation, is a very well-respected digital media guru in Washington, DC. He also knows a thing or two about building relationships online. So it’s no surprise that when Bluey took to the blogosphere to vent about Facebook, people took note.
In his own words:
I consider myself a friendly person, but that’s no longer the case when it comes to Facebook. After careful thought and deliberation, I’ve decided to stop accepting friend requests from people I don’t know.
Bluey’s point: Having 3,000 friends might make you look cool, but in reality it does you no good if no one is paying attention to what you’re saying.
The same principle was recently made by Anil Dash who argues, "Nobody Has A Million Twitter Followers."
The truth: Nobody has been able to point me to a single Twitter account that’s earned over 250,000 followers on its own. Nobody’s been able to point me to a Twitter account on the suggested user list that’s gotten favorites, replies, retweets or responses from a larger number. And nobody’s been able to demonstrate why the inflated follower count numbers should be used as a measure of anything but the growth in signups to the core Twitter service itself. … That leaves an inescapable conclusion. Nobody has a million followers on Twitter.
Bluey’s Mission: Rid himself of "friends" he has no personal connection with. The process is called the "Facebook Diet" and his hope is to accomplish a more personal platform for him to share his thoughts, pictures and family updates.
Don’t get us wrong, we fully support social networking and believe it to be an important tool for people across the globe – we just hate when douchers users take the medium too seriously.
Related: Kill Your Online Identity
With that, we tip our hat to Mr. Bluey and offer him some advice as he begins the long, arduous process of defriending. **We’re also willing to adopt any unwanted friends he’s about to let go.
The art of defriending via Emily Van Zandt
Don’t defriend family: Yes, having parents on Facebook is awkward. Know what’s worse? Refriending your mom. No one needs that kind of talk at the dinner table.
Don’t defriend co-workers: This goes for potential business contacts, too. If I were a social-networking purist. I’d say stick to LinkedIn. But I’m not. Keep ’em. You’ll need ’em.
Don’t defriend friends. The real ones. The ones who help you move.
DO defriend people you’ve never met: I don’t know how it happened, but I was at some point friends with both Jerry Garcia and Truman the Tiger. I’m not proud.
DO defriend oversharers: Or don’t. The way these people swing from highly annoying to highly entertaining is nothing short of amazing. That person who updates their status “Finally passed my kidney stone!” Really great. Yet really awful.
**The entire tip list can be found here. [h/t Lazy Hazy’s wife]
What are you waiting for. Go clean up your life.