It’s time to delete your racist hometown ‘friends’ on Facebook

You barely spoke to them in school, and you definitely haven’t spoken to them in person since. There might be a nod in the supermarket but even that’s pushing it. The only time they really enter your world is during meet ups with home friends or, more commonly, when their daily – and very questionable – posts about Muslims and Syria crop up on Facebook.

They make you want to tear your hair out, push you to the edge of despair and occasionally make you hover over the unfriend button to get rid of them from your lives forever. Their racist “jokes”, fascist inclinations, nuggets of wisdom and sharing of pseudo-profound inspirational quotes are pathetic – but, for some reason, you can’t quite bring yourself to get rid of them.

We are all outraged by the steep price increase of Freddos, so it’s good to see we have people fighting our corner

Wow

The main reason for this inability to delete is perhaps because they’re such a rich source of entertainment. They really help you on a bad day. You’re not mad at your housemates for flooding the kitchen anymore, you’re mad at your primary school friends for posting incredulous and insensitive solutions to really complex global problems to do with wealth, gender, race and war – like this:

No

And, of course, this:

I won’t be sharing this one any time soon

These are the posts that make you realise you are not the 13-year-olds who happened to live in the same town anymore, and you have chosen very different paths in life. You feel a sense of progress, enlightenment and general development from the backward bubble you left behind.

But while these posts give you a kick, it’s really time to see them for what they truly are: ignorant and offensive rants by people who are old enough to know better. It might be fun to use them as a pick-me-up to remind you how far you’ve come, but this is a poor, indulgent reason to tolerate their obscenity.

Don’t ignore them anymore. You’re not friends and you don’t agree with what they say. No matter how much their opposing views can provide some entertainment, they step over the line between being humorous and plain offensive. It’s pretty safe to say you have very little in common with your primary school “friends”. It’s time to say goodbye and lose their posts for good.

And while you’re at it delete anyone you haven’t spoken to in a year. It’s not cool to have 1000 Facebook friends anymore.