Writer Avenges Facebook Unfriending In Times
Douglas Quenqua's New York Times Thursday Styles assignment was not just an opportunity to explore the complex social terrain of Facebook "unfriending." It was also a chance to settle old online scores.
Oh, you thought he forgot, "Ehren S.?" Douglas Quenqua does not forget when it comes to which of his 330 Facebook "friends" are willing to stab him in the back, then lie about it.
Roughly halfway through his story, Quenqua enters a discursion on "punitive unfriending," which is apparently something silly people do when innocent-meaning associates break one of their absurd rules. At least that's the impression Quenqua left from his one example, involving himself:
Perhaps someone annoys you by posting an obsessive number of status updates, or expresses himself in a way that you consider obnoxious?
Those were the excuses that Ehren S., a former co-worker of mine who apparently unfriended me sometime this past spring, offered up recently for giving me the digital heave-ho.
“I believe it was based on a passive-aggressive update of yours to which I sighed, kinda shook my head and pressed ‘delete from friends,’ ” she confessed by e-mail. “I find negativity a bit tiresome and don’t have the patience for it.”
Fine. Though forgive me for pointing out that Ehren, who asked that I not use her full name, initially tried to fib her way out of the awkwardness by saying she did it for a Whopper.
Gosh, Ehren found Quenqua passive-aggressive and negative on Facebook? Wait until she sees her quote in the New York Times, where he wrote an entire article so he could call her out. Now that's passive aggressive. Try "Delete"ing your association with Douglas on that platform, lady. (NB to Ehren: if you'd like to offer a rebuttal to Douglas, send to tips@gawker.com, we'll make sure he sees it!)
(At least she didn't accidentally "friend" him using that GMail tool, then delete the friendship from her news feed when he accepted. That's the worst.)