So I’ve spotted that two people have unconnected from me on social media in the past week. What does that mean?

For record, I’m not talking about randos on twitter I’ve never met. But people I’ve worked with, eaten lunch with even.

It’s happened before. Someone I considered a good friend appeared as a “person you should consider friending on Facebook” and I’m like – but we *are* friends, we’ve been friends on Facebook since I joined.

And then the horrible sinking realisation that they must have chosen to have unfriended me. I was so hurt I blocked them everywhere.

I bumped into said acquaintance several years later and they acted as if nothing happening and as they went to leave said, “I’ll send you a message on Facebook.” And I smiled and nodded and pretended that I hadn’t noticed that we were no longer friends. Because how do you start a conversation about why they unfriended you on social media?

I’d be lying if I said that these things don’t hurt me. And change how I interact on social media. I rarely post anything on these sites now, for fear of being thought to be bragging, or annoying, or whatever other relationship crime I am committing that I am oblivious to. I mean, I’m talking about LinkedIn – where everyone posts about the jobs and their projects and how they got mentioned in an article. And I post nothing to my timeline and rarely like or comment for fear of being annoying.

I don’t want to be a human tortoise ever retreating further and further into her own shell, but I don’t get why neurotypicals are deemed the empathic ones when they seem to treat other people as disposable.