Do me a favour: go onto your Facebook messages and click on the ‘Other’ tab in your Inbox. What do you see? If you’ve never ventured this far from your homepage before, I’ll bet it’s a goldmine of weird, creepy, years-old messages from people you’ve never ever met. And probably wouldn’t ever want to.
These are individuals who seem to confuse Facebook for an online dating site or a place where people want to make new friends. Not so, I’m afraid.
Now just as you’ve discovered this, it’s about to be cuelly ripped from beneath you, because Facebook has decided to
. Instead, when someone who isn’t your ‘friend’ sends you a message, you’ll receive a ‘Message Request’, which you can either accept or ignore without the person who sent it knowing whether you’ve read it. Excellent.
However, we’d be lying if we said we didn’t have a slight feeling of (misplaced, granted) sadness that we’ll no longer receive these random messages. On the other hand: thank fuck for that. Ciao, weirdos.
But before we move on with our Facebook lives, let’s take a moment to remember all the good (and really bad) times.
The Simple One
No frills here, just a good old fashioned ‘Hi’ from your soon-to-be-friend on the other side of the world. After all, there’s no such things as strangers, just friends you haven’t met yet.
The Mean Facebook Troll
Just uncalled for, mate.
The One About Lost Stuff
An absolute classic. Doesn’t help that it’s been 14 months since you lost it and it’s already been replaced – the thought was there.
The Over-Complicated One About Lost Stuff
Slightly more niche, sure, but come on. If you’ve gone to the effort of contacting people to return a mobile phone, you don’t look at who they follow on Twitter. Recent calls, my friend, always recent calls.
The Misplaced Well-Wisher
Look, we’re not friends. Why don’t you go and wish your actual mates good seasonal tidings? Or spend Boxing Day eating cold turkey and chutney and cheese and playing with your new toys like a normal person?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.