Today’s word isn’t just our word of the week, it’s the Oxford Word of the Year for 2009: unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Every year as the holidays near, the New Oxford American Dictionary announces the year’s word. This is the first Word of the Year that originated on the Internet, and it’s an interesting choice given that social media is gaining popularity, not losing…people are generally adding friends to their networks, not removing or “unfriending” them.

Each person on Facebook has to make a decision about what constitutes a “friend”, and apparently some people reconsider that decision even after they’ve friended someone. There are so many other ways to avoid posts that you find annoying or offensive, I wonder what would be an unfriend-worthy offense? Have you ever unfriended someone? What would a friend have to do for you to unfriend them? Please share your opinions!