- Hey, it's your buddy, Zach.
Facebook recently blocked an app which allows users
to see which of their friends had unfriended them,
Which got me to wondering.
Has anyone ever unfriended me from Facebook?
Keep in mind I'm pretty cool,
but it turns out four people have unfriended me on Facebook
and that's (beep) so I decided to track down
my ex-friends and find out what I did wrong.
(music)
Using my expert research skills I tracked down my marks.
Actually, I just logged into Facebook
and typed in their names.
The first, my college roommate's ex-girlfriend,
blocked me immediately.
(buzzer)
The second said she would
rather not be in my video,
(buzzer)
but the third and fourth agreed to video chat with me
and explain what had happened,
but first I decided to talk to some co-workers
and find out what their thoughts were
on this whole unfriending phenomenon.
Have you ever unfriended someone on Facebook?
- Yes, I have.
- Of course I have.
- Oh, all the time.
- Really?
All the time? - [Woman] (laughs) Yeah.
- So, what's the reason you might
unfriend someone on Facebook?
- All right.
- Racist statement, homophobic.
- If you're too political, I unfriend you.
- If there's someone that I've dated
and I don't want to see their social media.
- Talk about their problems all the time.
- If you send me Candy Crush requests, you're cut.
- For a while I hooked my Twitter up to my Facebook.
- Oh, I would unfriend the (beep) out of you.
- It's really bad, because it's usually
when it's their birthday, cause that's the only way
that I know I'm friends with them.
- You can't unfriend people on their birthday.
You gotta wait one day, I mean that's cold.
- I mean I feel like they wouldn't notice, right?
- I notice.
Four people unfriended me on Facebook. (gasp)
- Were you posting annoying things?
- Never.
- Zach's never done anything like that.
- I think that maybe you're over saturating them,
and maybe it's not even your fault.
- Are you trying to tell, do you think
do I over saturate you on Facebook?
- You don't over saturate me.
- People unfriend you when they think
you're not interesting enough to keep.
- Sometimes you just have to cut ties with people.
- If you're not gonna to write happy birthday
on the person's wall when it's their birthday,
you should just delete them,
'cause that's what Facebook's for.
- My co-work, (sigh) my co-workers were helpful,
but if I really want to find out why I was unfriended
there are only two people who can help me.
Here we go.
(Skype ringing)
- Zachy
- Hey, David.
- Hello, Amanda.
- Hi.
- I appreciate you taking some time to talk to me,
it's been awhile, three or four years.
- Yeah, probably, because I think we stopped hanging out
before we graduated college, oh God,
this is awkward, sorry. (laughs)
- No, it's gonna get more awkward.
- [Zach] You commented on three of my profile pictures.
That's how I knew you unfriended me.
- They are some good photos, I couldn't help myself I guess.
- One of the pictures is me in a C-3PO costume,
and I'm kind of touching myself like that.
- You were like this, just like feeling yourself.
- Yeah, I mean, the more that we're talking about it,
the more I'm realizing like we were definitely friends.
We weren't just like...
- Yeah, no we definitely were.
We went to a lot, we hung out a lot.
- All right, David, let's just dive right into this.
You and I were Facebook friends.
(David laughs)
- You severed that tie.
(David laughs)
We are no longer Facebook friends.
Why are you laughing?
This is not a laughing matter, this is serious.
- It's funny, I'm sorry.
- What did I do?
Why did you unfriend me?
- I (laughs), yeah, I don't remember why exactly I did it.
- Just like a distancing thing.
- I don't know, I've thought about it too,
and I was like, I really have no idea.
- So, you weren't the only one, just so you know.
There were many who were just like plucked off.
- I mean, I unfriend people a lot from college.
Like I'm a serial, I do it on their birthday too.
I'm the worst, I always do the birthday unfriend.
- I just didn't give a shit.
I was just like, meh, meh, meh.
I was thinking in the instant, man.
I can't be the only one who does that.
- You're still friends with my other roommates you said,
my old college roommates.
- Yeah.
- So, it was just me.
- 'Cause Holly always thought that you had a crush on her,
and were kind of weird,
so I think eventually the hive-mind
of the dorm (laughs) convinced us
(laughs) that we were all like, ah man, no good.
- It's like every fear I potentially had confirmed
in one terrible video chat.
- You and I don't talk, you know?
- [David] Yeah.
- That's just a fact.
- Would you say we're friends right now?
- No, I wouldn't, I don't know anything about your life.
- I mean, we were into similar things,
and then we went on the paths of differentiating,
and just sort of different livelihoods.
- You know we were friends, and now we're not friends,
and maybe that's okay.
- Yes.
- A relationship is like a shark.
It has to keep moving forward, or else it dies.
- It think a general rule is,
if I don't even feel like wishing you happy birthday,
you're not worth being my Facebook friend.
That's pretty much, if I wouldn't consider it then,
that's that.
- You know, you lose friends along the way,
and that can be okay.
So we said our goodbyes.
In the end it was nice reconnecting with David and Amanda,
even despite the circumstances that brought us together.
We even decided to remain Facebook friends for now.
We had refriended for the sake of the video.
And then on my birthday, something unexpected happened.
(music)
- [David] Follow me on Instagram.
- Instagram's a little more selective. (laughs)
- See, so there we go, there we go, there we go.
What does it mean to follow someone on Instagram, Zach?
- (laughs) Different video, different video.
David just called me out for my shit.