Do You Need To Cut The 'Friend Fat'?

"Katie is now friends with 6 people."

"Katie just found an abandoned three-legged calf in Farmville!"

"Katie just 'liked' Weight Watchers."

You haven't seen Katie since first grade. But she sent you a friend request on Facebook and now you're seriously regretting that click of the mouse. Has Facebook friending gone too far? According to a late night talk show host , the answer is yes. Jimmy Kimmel took a stand against excessive Facebook Friending!

On his show, Kimmel included a Facebook rant in his opening monologue where he declared November 17th to be "National Unfriend Day" - set to take place this week. It's his idea of a holiday, one in which Internet enthusiasts are encouraged to 'cut the friend fat' from their list of hundreds or thousands of people who are not actually friends.

"Remember five years ago when no one had Facebook and you didn't know what the guy you took high school biology with was having for lunch? Remember how that was fine? Let's go back to that," Kimmel told his audience jokingly.

Perhaps intended as lighthearted comedy, the gesture stands behind a good point. How many of our Facebook friends are people we actually see and talk to on a regular basis? Why is there a feeling of guilt when we deny complete strangers access to our personal lives? For some of us, the well known social networking site is not just an online playground where we can communicate with close pals via screen and touch pad, it's a platform for marketing and branding ourselves.

Anyone with a career in need of promotion can use the web as a place to shamelessly plug their product, create a virtual fan base, and network with like-minded associates. For others, though, it's merely a popularity contest. Let's face it, you see 2000 friends on someone's page and somehow they seem cooler.

Are you going to cut any 'friend fat' on National Unfriend Day? We just might!

Courtney Gilmour
		About the author:
		Courtney is a published writer, stand-up comic, and shameless Internet enthusiast. She holds a double bachelors degree in English Literature and Communication Media Studies, specializing in semiotic theory, however she doesn't get Shakespeare and has never won a game of Scrabble. Currently she lives in Toronto and works as a writer for WOMAN.CA.
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