EDITORIAL -- The social networking site Facebook has become such a significant aspect of people’s lives that many have neglected to fully consider the sweeping ramifications of this new media. One such implication is the fact that most people have hundreds of “friends” on their profile who cannot truly be labeled as such -- or even as acquaintances, or even as strangers in crowds they might one day stumble upon again. Many “friends” are, in reality, total strangers. If you don’t recognize the faces on your friend list -- most likely because you dizzily exchanged profile information over drinks in a claustrophobic nightclub -- then “Defriend Day” has been named in your honor.

But what of the victims traumatized by “Defriend Day,” those who languish in the long shadow cast by Facebook’s grandeur and its elite? What happens to those of us who’ve lost cherished friends, only now discovering that our relationships were nothing more than vacuous courtesies? I offer this elegy in response.