Facebook Unfriending Feature - Amusing But True

Facebook developers need to cater for social realities and create a new feature: providing a reason for unfriending Friends.

At the moment, whenever you unfriend a friend, they simply disappear from your list of friends and can no longer access your Facebook profile. This occurs without Notification to the unfriendee.

Why should unfriending someone be a sneaky, undercover act? It seems so dishonest and encourages gutless behaviour.
Since when does Facebook allow any actions to be performed undercover or with scant notice to those parties involved?

Facebook users are bombarded every day with status updates and Notifications. Why should such a significant action as 'unfriending' someone remain so hidden, giving the unfriendee no clue as to what has happened? Worse, unfriendees often have to parse through their friend list whenever they eventually notice that their friend count has decreased, in order to locate the missing friend. If and when they finally determine the missing friend, they are left wondering why they were unfriended. This can often be a tormenting or dangerously speculative experience and in extreme cases, may even sour future relations or lead to paranoia.

So enough said. Unfriending needs to change on Facebook.
It should be an honest, reasonable action leaving the unfriender's dignity intact and educating the unfriendee to avoid misunderstandings.

So here's a suggestion for a Facebook enhancement. heh heh.

When a Facebook user clicks on "Remove From Friends", a prompt window should open listing several reasons to choose from together with an 'other' textbox for free text entry. Unfrienders should be able to check one of the available options or type in their own personal reason. Only the unfriendee will ever see this reason so privacy will be maintained.

Unfriended friends (or should that be, unfriended ex-friends!) should then get a Notification indicating:
1) that they are no longer your friend and
2) your reason for unfriending them.

An example notification would be:

Laura has unfriended you because your comments on her Wall are inappropriate.

or the more friendly,

Laura has unfriended you because she is spring cleaning and realised over time that you actually don't log into Facebook anyway. Where the hell are you?

or how about,

Laura has unfriended you because she has no idea who you are and you're probably just a Narcissist seeking to multiply your friend count past 1000.

or better still,

Laura has unfriended you because you're friends with someone she can't stand. Traitor!

even better yet,

Laura has unfriended you because in the first place, she only befriended you out of curiosity and has decided that you are indeed not worth her time.

for fun,

Laura has unfriended you to see if you would even notice.

for the nitpicky,

Laura has unfriended you because you forgot to wish her a happy birthday. This is your last chance! Now get your act together.

And lastly,

Laura has unfriended you because she fully understands that you only befriended her for self-interested networking reasons and/or to bask in her glory by having her appear in your list of connections and quite frankly, she doesn't have the patience to indulge people like you.

I think it's time for Facebook to stand up to the complex realities existing in the social world. So no more sneaky acts, Facebook users will soon have the opportunity to demonstrate fearless courage and stand by their motivation for unfriending behavior. Let's make it happen!

oh, and I couldn't resist these gem definitions of Unfriend from Urban Dictionary.