14 DAY TRIAL // Socializing online does follow the same patterns as in the real world but there are certain subtleties and nuances and the tools used for human interaction, social networks, blogs, Twitter, etc. have their inherent limitations and quirks. One particular problem, especially for social networks, is how to reject a friend request from someone you may or may not know without seeming and feeling totally rude. Thankfully Facebook knows all about these kinds of issues and is offering some advice on the matter.
“Have you ever received a friend request from someone you didn't know or with whom you had second thoughts about being friends, such as the student you never spoke with but sat in front of during class? Luckily, if you want to decline a friend request or remove someone from your Facebook Friend List, you can do so without attracting attention,” Facebook's Xenia Nosov writes.
The simplest and most common way of rejecting a friend proposal is to “Ignore” it. By selecting ignore the friend request will be removed from the Requests list. The nice part about this option is that the user who initiated the request isn't actively notified of the refusal leaving you with a clean list and feeling warm and fuzzy inside. The downside of this though is that the pesky user will be able to send you another request in the future leaving you at square one.
Luckily there is a second more devious way of handling unwanted requests by not replying to them in any way, damning them to friend request “purgatory.” This means that they will still be there every time you see the list but the users won't be able to send you any more requests. But if you've already made the mistake and added someone as a friend that you didn't want or regret doing there's always the option of removing him or her. Follow the “Remove from Friends” link and then select the friend you want removed. However, think twice before doing this because if you change your mind you will have to go through the whole request process again while having to come up with a good excuse also.