Un-Friendly

Perhaps its the social psychologist researcher in my spirit, but I really wish I knew why people unfriend people on facebook. I know why I unfriend people but I would love to hear other people's reasoning.

I unfriend* people when:

• They are frequently vocal on an issue in a way that leaves me feeling offended or disgusted. This could be religious, political, sexual, violent, whiny, and petty. I didn't join fb to feel offended or disgusted by a group of people I invite to interact with me. I can't control real life; I can control fb.
• They bombard me with invitations to fb apps or their scores on fb games. I don't mind a few scores or invites now and then.
• They post on their status that they are going to unfriend some people. That's actually related to the first bullet. It's a fb pet peeve of mine. What's the point of announcing to all that you are going to remove some? It just sits funny with me when I read that and I find myself compelled to remove them first. It's a weird quirk of mine.
• I feel like we really have nothing significantly common and probably won't ever. I've friended people on fb many years after I unfriended them in real life. (Back then unfriended wasn't even a word.) Some friendships aren't made to last. 

I don't know who has unfriended me but I imagine some UNC TarHeel haters get tired of my frequent "Go Heels" posts during basketball season. Sorry, it's who I am. 

Well, there is this one girl I know from my old neighborhood (where I grew up) who keeps unfriending me. It's happened twice and the second time I got the hint. At first I thought it was a mistake and she refriended me at my request. When I was unfriended again I realized it was probably intentional. I can't think of anything I might have done to offend her in the present or the past. What a shame. I actually wanted to keep in touch with that one. Oh well. 

So why do you remove friends from your fb page? Do you announce when you are going to purge your list? If so, please tell me why.

*Sometimes I don't actually unfriend a person. On a case-by-case basis, I may decide to "mute" a person so I don't see their status updates but they stay on my friends' list.