Editorial: Find real friends away from net

Who cares if someone deletes you on Facebook?

I have 643 friends on Facebook (or at least I did at the time I wrote this).

Of those, there are only a fraction I regularly speak to or see in person.

There are some people I know I've met at some point, somewhere but I couldn't tell you more than that.

Early on I accepted every friend request as long as I vaguely knew the person. Now I wonder why I accepted requests from people at school I never talked to even though we were in the same class.

I've thought about deleting the people I'm not really friends with but I'm just too lazy.

I have a bad habit of scrolling through my news feed mindlessly checking out what's happening in the lives of others.

There are school friends (well, people I knew at school) who I haven't talked to since I left more than eight years ago. Even so, I could tell you all about their engagements, weddings or children. In fact, some days I could tell you what they ate for dinner.

I wouldn't have a clue who has unfriended me and I couldn't really care less.

That's why it came as a surprise to me to read that an app that tells you who has deleted you on Facebook has been relaunched.

Who cares if someone deletes you on Facebook?

And why would you want to know?

Knowing will do you no good.

Surely if you are really friends with someone, you will know if there is a problem with the relationship.

If you don't, I'd question if they really are a friend.

Apparently there are similar apps for Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.

Why bother?

If someone deletes you, it's probably not personal.

Maybe they just don't want to know what you eat for every meal. Maybe they aren't kid people and don't want to know your baby's every development.

Or just maybe they met you once and, like me, can't remember who you are or how they know you.

Social media friends are not real friends.

Maybe instead of living our lives through social media we should get out, join a club or a team, and make some real friends.