The world of social media can be a strange place when it comes to conducting relationships. You may learn more than you care to know about a casual acquaintance or inadvertently find out something unsavory about someone you thought you knew well. Perhaps you consistently get unfavorable feedback on items you post to your own page, or you friend someone who seems nice enough at first but turns into a total creeper. The first rule of unfriending – and being unfriended – is to make as little ado about it as possible. Be subtle and simply unfollow (if you're on Twitter) or unfriend the person on Facebook. If you're just seeing a deluge of posts in your newsfeed every day – or posts that are super annoying, offensive or otherwise – there's a less drastic and much less obvious way to get rid of the pesky person. Simply hide their posts. You'll never see them again, and it's so much more subtle than blocking/unfriending. There's no need to notify the person – that'll only create drama.
And don't wax poetic on dropping that person – it's liable to get back to them and – you guessed it – create drama. If your block/unfriend is noticed, then offer a polite response as to why you pulled the plug. Be clear and concise in your explanation and leave it at that. Remember that social media and real life overlap – being friends with a coworker on Facebook, then unfriending him or her can create office tension, for example. Be sure you won't run into the person if you burn your bridges, and be ready with that explanation if you are sure to encounter him or her in real life. Finally, be careful about solving real-life problems with such a permanent online solution. You'll need to account for your actions if you and, say, your boyfriend mend fences in real life, and you unfriended him.