2009 Word of the Year: Unfriend

Image via Wikipedia

This weekend I had the pleasure of accompanying my sister in-law to Facebook's Aussie team Christmas party. It was good fun and also good to spend some time around some other Americans. We talked about some of the benefits of living here in Sydney as well as some of the challenges of living abroad. One common complaint is that we hardly ever get phone calls from folks back stateside. It's like pulling teeth to get someone to dial a few extra digits to make a call. Either that or doing the math to figure out the time change tends to short-circuit any ability to think straight with the most common excuse being "I keep thinking I'm going to call and it'll be 3:00 in the morning". My response is of course "Well since you've never ACTUALLY called, then a 3am call would be a big step forward in our relationship".

So fresh off my Facebook outing and only slightly bitter thinking about all the friends who are likely to "almost" call me for Christmas I thought that this year's word of the year, Unfriend, might be a good starting place for me to think about going into 2010. A couple of weeks ago "Unfriend" was named the Oxford University Press America's 2009 Word of the Year. On first glance I thought nothing of it wondering how this would at all be of interest to me for an Expat blog. But now, as I peruse my Facebook friends list making mental check marks and using questionable language (or as I tell my son Taeus - "big boy words") as I scroll past certain names, the relevance of the 2009 word of the year is unquestionable. Usually when you move abroad everyone wants to know how things are going with making new friends when maybe the better question to ask is how things are going shedding the old ones?

So, as we approach the new year maybe it's time to do a bit of "out with the old" on the ole friends list. Maybe clip a few of those friends who never actually call you but want to burn a hole in your phone bill talking about their "issues" when you call them? Or maybe that friend who swears up and down that they're going to fly half way around the world to come check you out but is always just "so busy" that they can't even make the time to call. Of course if you're one of those folks who might be worried about your status, you can always let your fingers do the walking, learn how to actually make an international call from the States (cause most of you don't!) and grace us with the sound of your voice. Even if your math skills aren't up to snuff and you do ring us at 3am you'll get credit for the effort and in the process avoid becoming a casualty of the "Unfriend" button. If this works then maybe "Re-friend" will be in the running for next year's word of the year.

Black2Oz out.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Unfriend or Defriend? Facebook Fans Debate (abcnews.go.com)
• "Unfriend" Declared Word of the Year [Web] (gizmodo.com)
• 'Unfriend' because a part of the English Language? (techburgh.com)