"Remove Friend"

For E. Khym. READ THIS ARTICLE. WHEN I READ IT. I THOUGHT OF YOU. Wired magazine "I'll be there 4 U". Scott Brown starts "thanks to facebook, i never lose touch with anyone. and that my friend, is a problem". He talks of this "infinite friendspace" as an unalloyed good b/c

1. it encourages hoarding. Friends are the currency of the socially netowrked world; therefore, it follows that more equals better. But the more friends you have, the less they're worth - and more to the point, the less human they are....

2. friending has subsumed the ol'rolodex. granted it's often convenient to have all of your contacts under one roof. but the great thing about the rolodex was that it never talked back, it didn't throw virtual octopi or make you take movie quizzes, and it never, ever poked you. the rolodex just sat there. it was all business

3. THIRD AND MOST GRAVE - WE"VE LOST OUR RIGHT TO LOSE TOUCH. "A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature," emerson wrote, not bothering to add, "and like most things natural, friendship is biodegradable" We scrawl "friends forever" in yearbooks, but we quietly realize, with relief, that some bonds are meant to be shed, like snakeskin or a showtime subscription. It's nature's way of allowing you to change, adapt, evolve, or devlolve as you wish - and freeing you from the exhaustion of multifront friend maintenance.

"Deletion is scary-and, we're told, unnecessary in the Petabyte Age. That's what made good old-fashioned losing touch so wonderful - friendships, like long-forgotten photos and mix-tapes, would distort and slowly whistle into oblivion, quite naturally, nothing personal. It was sweet and sad and, though you'd rarely admit it, necessary"

- SCOTT BROWN I'll BE THERE 4 U - WIRED MAGAZINE NOV 2008