Do you defriend on Facebook?

13th March 2012: I’ve been suffering a bit of a Facebook-related crisis recently. OK, maybe crisis is too strong a word. We’ll go with “quandary” instead then.

The thing is, I think I have too many Facebook friends. Usually, this wouldn’t bother me, but recently it’s become a bit of an issue. When I arrive at work in the morning, the first thing I do is log onto Facebook. And I’m confronted with a load of status updates that make me a bit peeved. I know it shouldn’t, but I can’t help but feel a bit jealous of all my Facebook friends who have had huge pay rises / super intelligent children / won the lottery / bought a new mansion etc etc.

Please tell me people lie on Facebook?!

Jez reckons the situation’s easily solved. He thinks I should have a “spring clean” and defriend all the people I never speak to on Facebook. He also thinks I should defriend the ones whose status updates get me riled.

But I’m not so sure. I don’t want to offend anyone. What if they realise they’ve been defriended and then I bump into them in “real life”? Awkward!

And then there’s always the chance I could be missing out on good friendships. Some people who I now speak to lots on Facebook have only become recent “proper” Facebook friends, now we have more in common or have only just started noticing each other’s status updates.

So, as ever, I asked your advice. And boy, did we get some advice.

I don’t think we’ve ever had quite as many comments on an issue before. It all kicked off with Nickie, social media expert and fellow blogging friend. Nickie thought Jez was being a bit brutal with his “defriend them all” attitude!

Nicky, Facebook expert

But it seems Jez isn’t alone. Here’s a snippet of what everyone on the Heart Wiltshire Facebook page thought:

Natasha: Delete, if you barely speak to them then whats the point. I had people on my list who didnt speak to me in the street but wanted to be friends on Facebook, no thanks!! :)

Andy: I have a cull every 6 months or so. If I haven't spoken to them on FB in that time, it's usually g'bye. But I do give people notice of the cull and enough time to justify why their on my friends list lol :-).

Emma: Do it. The way I tidied up mine was to ask whether I'd say hello if I saw them out and about and whether I'd have a drink with them if we bumped into each other. You know your supposed to get rid of clothes you don't wear, so do the same with your "friends". If you never comment or even read their updates you don't really need them in your list.

Emma H:  Feel just the same Molly, its horrible isn't it! I also would except every friend request as well, just in case I would offend! Weird really, cause in normal life I'm a strong person, but with fb I'm a wimp! Lol

What do you think I should do?