Word of the Year

What word sums up 2009?

How about “unfriend?”

That’s the New Oxford Dictionary’s 2009 Word of the Year. It means to remove someone as a friend on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year. Oxford lexicographer Christine Lindberg says “unfriend” has “real lex-appeal.”
[From an AP article in my local paper on 11/17/09.]

“Unfriend.” What a mean word. It sounds as if one is deleting a person from his life. If that is the word that “best reflects the mood of the year,” it is a very sad commentary on 2009. In the pop culture of Facebook, texting, sexting, cell phones, and 15 minutes of fame, one gets a feeling of temporariness rather than permanence. I suppose that friends could be expendable as well. Over the years, we’ve all had a few friends that we have left behind, outgrown, or lost touch with, but to actually "unfriend" someone just sounds way too harsh to me.

I’ve always thought of myself as a steadfast friend who tries to stay in touch with faraway friends by email and now by blog and works hard to get together with local friends. So, even though my life and my location have changed, I still have not deliberately unfriended anyone. In fact, I think that I need all the friends I can get.

So what would cause one person to unfriend another? Perhaps that friend posted an unflattering photo of him or left a nasty message on his Facebook page? Or is it simply that a Facebook "friend" is a generic term that includes mere acquaintances, former classmates, and potential stalkers?

My children, who are active Facebook members, gave me a possible reason for blocking a friend. It may be the desire to keep one’s Facebook page separate from one’s work colleagues after adding them initially and later regretting it. I can see the social lines blurring as we increasingly connect electronically. Still to unfriend someone does sound unfriendly, unkind, and unnecessary.

If unfriend is the word that reflects the mood of 2009, what will 2010 bring?