Dear Prudence,
I know this is a petty problem, but one that I’ve been getting more upset about lately than I should be: getting unfriended. I have a Facebook account, and over the years I’ve had quite a few people unfriend me. I know this because occasionally I wonder how someone I went to college/high school with is doing, find their Facebook account, and see that they’ve deleted me. This in itself isn’t a big deal—it stings a bit, of course, but I know some people do purges from time to time, like to keep their social media followers current, etc.
The part about this that bugs me is that I seem to be the only one getting the ax. I went to a small high school, and yesterday I wondered how an old friend from school was doing and saw he’d deleted me. But we still had dozens of mutual contacts, many of which he hadn’t known nearly as well as me! I’ve had this happen over and over again. People will delete me, but leave everyone else they knew from the same context as me.
For my own part, I very rarely update my own FB profile and mostly use it to like other people’s posts and leave an occasional pleasant comment. I never post anything offensive, political, or unkind. I just don’t get it. I’m 30—too old to be upset about being unfriended by friends and acquaintances from years ago, but I am! Any tips on how to cope with this?
— Friendly but Unfriended