Unfriend: Oxford New American Dictionary "Word of the Year"

By Robert Paul Reyes

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"Unfriend" is Oxford New American Dictionary`s "Word of the Year."

There should be quotation marks around the word "friends" in the phrase "Facebook friends list." Some folks have hundreds of Facebook friends, but most of them are bots, strangers, Internet predators, and hucksters.

Some people I know check their Facebook Web page many times per day, and they freak out if they lose one or two friends.

My life doesn`t revolve around how many Facebook friends or Twitter followers I have. It`s nice to have virtual friends, but it`s the flesh and blood pals that we count on when times are hard.

But I do admit that I am unnerved when a real friend or acquaintance unfriends me, that`s the Net equivalent of being pimp slapped.

It may be a few years before the word "unfriend" becomes part of the American lexicon, my spell check software flags the word as a typo.

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