Should You Follow Your Frenemies?

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tl;dr – No, waste of time.

Let’s face it. The world is a cruel place, and there are far more awful people than awesome people.

This is one of those first world problems, and my solution for it. Should you follow your frenemies?

A frenemy is someone that is your “friend” in social networks but in real life is out to get you. They “get” you economically or politically but they aren’t out to kill you.

I used to believe that you should “friend” every one but I soon realized that my on-line presence soon became a node for opportunists to get up a rung higher in the game of status.

Now, I’m selective. There are lots of folks that will say to you in the face, “Hey, let’s catch up.” Or “let’s do lunch soon.” But they do not really mean it. There are lots of folks that are plain nasty. One person invited me out to lunch just to say that he perceived me as lazy despite working on weekends and at the time having #1 apps for their segment in the Apple Store.

Anyways, I am un-following these folks. I don’t care about using foursquare to avoid them. I don’t care if they’re talking to my boss. The key here is to stay as light as possible.

Comments

4 responses to “Should You Follow Your Frenemies?”

February 4, 2012

whatsaysyou

Following a frenemy is never a good idea especially when they are toxic and always bringing people down. It is better to un-follow and be surrounded by nice people who can respect you rather than be bogged down by a frenemy who is only good at being a hypocrite and don’t even know the meaning of friendship and respect.
February 26, 2012

spino

then again, there’s the moral problem that by following only those you like, you’re only really feeding your ideas with things you’d like to hear in the first place.
May 25, 2012

secretagentwoman

Distance yourself as far as possible to make sure they donâ€™t interfere with your self-worth or feeling of relevance to the world. If these people are the competition, a suggestion would be to keep these â€œfrenemiesâ€ on a separate list, so you can check in every once in a while and pay attention to their strategy â€“ but donâ€™t let them distract you from your dreams. Stay focused and positive!
June 16, 2012

Lloyd Chang (@LloydChang)

frenemies’ll cooperate, but they won’t collaborate

most friendships seem relatively amoraliskeptical from my perspective; it’s usually about time & opportunity

in my humble opinion, a friend will immediately bail another friend out of jail at 3am in the morning without asking why… for many people, that’s about a handful of friends at best 🙂