On Facebook, Nov. 17 is 'Intl. Unfriend Day'

ABS-CBN News

Posted at Nov 17 2010 12:33 PM | Updated as of Nov 17 2010 08:35 PM

MANILA, Philippines - How many friends do you have on Facebook?

If you have 1,000 friends, consider 'purging' your contacts list, said a TV host.

Today, November 17, is International Unfriend Day, and popular American TV host Jimmy Kimmel is urging Facebook users to purge their friends list and remove people they don't really know. On Facebook, Nov. 17 is 'Intl. Unfriend Day' 1

Kimmel believes Facebook is cheapening the meaning of friendship because you can't really have 1,000 friends.

"(National Unfriend Day) NUD is the international day when all Facebook users shall protect the sacred nature of friendship by cutting out any 'friend fat' on their pages occupied by people who are not truly their friends," said Jimmy Kimmel Live's website. "Get ready to unfriend!"

"Mark it down – November 17th – let's free ourselves from fake computer friendships and get back to what the Internet was intended to be used for – as a naked picture distribution engine #NationalUnFriendDay," so goes a status post on Jimmy Kimmel Live's Facebook page.

The movement seems to have a struck a chord. A Facebook page dubbed "National Unfriend Day Nov 17" has garnered almost 5,000 "likes" as of 11:29 a.m. on November 17.

That Facebook page reported that "Facebook says the average user has 130 friends."

The page also quoted Kimmel saying, "you can only really have, know more than a dozen real friends at one time."

He also reportedly said, "I know people who have hundreds, even thousands of friends. 500 friends? I can’t imagine many people who have that many friends with whom they would willingly share personal updates, photos, even their full birthday. So I asked around and got some good insight into the friending and unfriending business. These findings don’t represent a large group, just my friends!"

Kimmel also reportedly said he only has 170 people on his Facebook friends list. "I only accept friend requests from people I know, people I would gladly have lunch with, and with whom I don’t mind sharing information about my son."

Unfriending a friend

Contrary to what some people may think, when you unfriend someone on Facebook, that person won't know you committed such a deed.

"If you unfriend someone on Facebook, the person does not receive a notification, but they can no longer look at your profile and they can’t request to get connected again," the page said, quoting Kimmel.

On Twitter, netizens worldwide have been talking about this day.

NismoZ31 tweeted, "National Unfriend Day tomorrow for all those people who post their entire schedule for the day in their status you shall be deleted."

obfiend wrote, "Today is national UNFRIEND day. Remember that. So if you find yourself not in FB friend list u know you just got unfriended! LOL

And troyski22o tweeted: They say its National Unfriend Day! I wonder who from my list of candidates to unfriend. Hmm...Maybe I should just do the entire list. Haha

PatSchilling posted, "I'm not participating in 'unfriend day," however, I am a bit interested to see who deletes me, haha." -- With report from ANC

Photo from Jimmy Kimmel Live's Facebook page