Defriend

To "defriend" is to remove someone from your Friends list on any one of the many social networking sites that plague the internet (like those nasty lesions on your mother's naughty bits); it is tantamount (especially in the case of Livejournal) to "throwing down the gauntlet" and declaring one's friendship at an end. Unsurprisingly, many people consider defriending a severe blow to their pride and reputation, and thus the act of defriending tends to stir up a lot of Internet drama.

Prince Jeremy defriends someone, striking a blow to the evil atheist oligarchy.

Outside of Livejournal, it is a useful method of clearing the detritus that clogs one's Facebook or Twitter feed. Defriending Myspace "friends" is pointless, as only shitty local bands and aspiring models/actresses still use Myspace, and would hardly notice as neither of the aforementioned possess anything resembling human feelings.

In any case, whether for the sake of lulz or perceived offense, defriending is always awesome—even when it happens to you.

Common Reasons to Defriend Some Asshole

• Disagreements over slash etiquette
• Posted chatlogs that prove you fap to the Pain Series.
• Admitted enjoyment of reality television
• Did not "like" enough of your amazing photographs, poetry or original art
• Called you out on your self-diagnosed but not at all fake condition
• Secretly hid goatse on your, and then set it as the only picture in your photo slideshow screensaver
• Tweets from the bathroom
• Source of serious boredom
• Posted your noodz

Livejournal

The typical LiveJournal User's response to defriending is defamation of the offending party, followed by attention whoring in an attempt to regain lost prestige or self-worth. In severe cases, threats of suicide are bandied about and claims of horrid diseases are made. Less stable victims of defriending usually post not only to LJ about the incident, but also talk about it endlessly on IRC and AIM. Particularly vindictive individuals, meanwhile, will often attempt to build conspiracies against offending party, working behind their backs to plot revenge, social ostracism and worse.

Though many defriended LJ users like to craft complex reasons or motives for their removal (the more elaborate the motive, the more important the defriended user feels), in reality they were usually defriended because their posts were boring, or the defriender grew tired of ceaselessly validating their existence. Indeed, the act of defriending usually causes more drama than the reasons behind the actual act itself.

See Also

• Deepfried
• Facebook Friend Culling

Defriend is part of a series on Social Media Visit the Social Media Portal for complete coverage.

Defriend is part of a series on LiveJournal Visit the LiveJournal Portal for complete coverage.