Unfriending: first-aid remedy for cyberbullying

Photo by FJ

Most view unfriending on facebook as an uncharitable, unchristian act of conduct. Nothing is amiss about clicking the "unfriend" button on social media inasmuch as you are doing so for those obsessed in hate posts and comments and cyberharassment. Unfriending is a healthy and wise move to maintain peace within yourself and your community online. Pharisaical view sees only idealistic rather than realistic approach to resolving human relations issues. Ideal is to befriend all people, but reality says, not all people like you. Evidence is in their, for example, unreasonable, destructive criticisms about your person, ideas, religious and political views -- and, worst, they post such criticisms to your own walls. The perpetrators try to undo you and do you unjust vexation that is overwhelming to the interior, stealing your peace and confidence. We are not shock absorbers of their unvented ire, much less doormats which they must wipe their grease-smeared shoes off on. It is imperative to do the sifting, separating the chaff from the grains, or cutting loose the toxic ones from your timelines and have an atmosphere of being at ease, at peace, and at home once again with your own computer, laptop, or mobile phone, screens. Or else, it would be a busy traffic for us online for self-defense and cyber-retaliation instead of using the gadgets for goodness' sake. Unfollowing, unfriending or, worse than other options, blocking is foremost first-aid remedy for cyberbullying, mutual reprisals and fake friendships.