Unfriend

I know I've been linking to lots of other sites and stories lately but I just keep running across things that I really want you to see...

Today is the New Oxford American Dictionary's "Word of the Year". And it is...Unfriend! Basically it is defined as a verb and means to "remove someone as a friend from a social networking site such as Facebook".

Unfriend...with one word someone goes from being on your list to being branded as someone you want no association with. You can have all kinds of friends on a Facebook site and perhaps never meet them face to face. Our society is becoming isolated. You can "talk" to someone in any number of ways and never ever hear their voice...e-mail, texting, Facebook, Twitter. While any and all can be useful tools, how can we be a friend if we have no physical contact? If you spend your time using these modern tools, are you really developing a friend? One that sticks with you and loves you in spite of your faults?

Something precious is being lost and the invention of a word like "unfriend" shows us how deep the loss goes.