Oh no! I've Just Been Un-Liked on Facebook!

Not since the second grade when Patty Brownell told me she no longer wanted to be friends with me have I been this crushed. Of course at the time I had no idea that Patty un-friended most of our second grade class. I moped around and felt miserable. Why would anyone tell me that they didn’t want to be my friend anymore? It wasn’t as if I had done anything to her. Besides, we were only in second grade, far too young for the catty backhanded stuff that went on in junior high. 

So it came as no surprise to me that when I saw the Facebook “LIKE” numbers for “Time Travel Mysteries” and realized that someone “Un-Liked” the page, I was devastated. What had I done?  None of my posts came even close to being controversial or distasteful. Stunned, I contacted my web designer, fellow authors, and anyone remotely familiar with Facebook. None of them appeared too concerned. 

“It’s not personal. Don’t worry about it.”  Isn’t that what the Corleone family said when they made a mob hit? 

“Why are you perseverating over it? Somebody probably pushed a wrong button.”  Then why didn’t they push it back and fix it? 

“Maybe they realized that that site wasn’t what they thought it was.”  Then why did they like it to begin with? 

The trouble is, there’s no way of knowing who “Un-Liked” the site or why. It just appears as a lost number. Oh, I suppose I could run a list of all the “LIKES” and then monitor it if someone suddenly disappears. But that would take an enormous amount of effort and then what? Was I going to contact them and demand to know why?  I didn’t even do that with Patty Brownell. 

There really should be a reason code just like the ones when you return catalog purchases. But instead of boxes that read: size too big, too small, etc., the boxes could read:

·         Not what I expected

·         My interests have changed. Too bad for your site.

·         Too many promotions

·         Not enough promotions

·         Not interesting enough

·         Too wordy

·         Not as intellectual as I originally thought

·         Not as funny as I originally thought

·         I just felt like “UN-LIKING” something today and you were it. 

But in the meantime, I’ll just have to live with the fact that “Time Travel Mysteries” has one less “LIKE.” But I hope that doesn’t become a trend or I’ll really start moping. So…if you haven’t already LIKED “Time Travel Mysteries,” please make my day and push the “LIKE” button. Unless of course, one of the above boxes pertains to you…