Fighting “friend” requests

By Raj M.

It started off with people you didn’t really like. “John Doe added you as a friend on Facebook (FB). To confirm this friend request, follow the link below…”
“Request” seems to be a polite way of saying, “Do this or you’re in big trouble.”
Like on a flight when the attendant says, “We request everyone to take their seats.” Or your boss says, “I’d request you not to take the weekend off.”

It’s pretty much an order bubble-wrapped in politeness.
So you’ve probably never talked to John Doe for longer than five minutes, or you were friends with him in 2nd grade, when you barely knew how to keep from peeing in your pants, let alone choose your best mates.
Either way, you’re stuck.
But as the FB disease spread like wild fire, suddenly you were confronted with a ‘friend’ request from family—your aunt.
Now you’re really in a fix.
If you reject your mom’s sister, or cousin, or third cousin’s uncle’s best friend, it’s a downright insult. The next time you’re at a wedding, reunion, or dinner party, she might just hunt you down and say loudly in front of the others, “Beta, why have you not added me as your friend on FB? What are you hiding, huh?”
The right answer is, “I’m hiding a whole lot that I don’t want to tell you.” But the politically correct answer would be “Oh sorry, I get so many requests sometimes I just miss a few here and there!”
So even though it’s complicated, there are ways to dodge your friends and relatives.
But the icing on the digital cake comes when you get that request from your parent.
“I can’t not add him,” a 25-year-old tells me about her dad. “It’ll hurt his feelings. Plus he barely has any friends and no one writes on his wall. I feel bad!”
But not all parents are as clueless as hers.

http://www.southasianparent.com/parenting-101/fighting-friend-requests/