The young woman was visibly (51) and clearly wanted to get something off her chest. "What's up?" I (52) "I've just been defriended," she said. Now "defriended" is a word (53) ! am not familiar. ! have been befriended (54) and befriended--many people since arriving in Beijing. But defriended? It turns (55) this is a new word created by the Interact-savvy younger generation specifically in relation to the worldwide social networking phenomenon, Facebook. Those who join can invite friends to become members of the site, (56) . They can then share photographs, "chat", swap messages and observations and perform a host of other mutually accessible applications. I've seen some people's sites (57) hundreds of friends, all moments away down a fiber optic cable, providing they are logged on to their computers or hooked up to a high-spec cell phone, It creates the possibility of "befriending" anyone in the world who has online access. Currently, Facebook has 150 million users. That means there's a lot of "friends" out there. The (58) is that you can be "defriended"--you can be denied access to the Face, book site someone who had previously invited to be his or her friend. And you can do it without the potential for instant recrimination. Where once, in the school playground on child might have petulantly shouted (59) another, "I'm not going to be your fried any more" the same hurt and loss of face can be performed remotely with the chick of a button. A (60) aspect of "defriending" is that, unlike with other applications such as the "what are you thinking about?" posting a digital depository of the often dire, (61) , dull and desperate, no message is sent out alerting you or your contacts about the change m status. You only find out you have (62) when you try to visit a "friend's" site, and you find you can no longer get in the delay of the discovery is all too often doubly hurtful. Just as bombs are dispatched impersonally (63) an unseen enemy in modem warfare, (64) relationships are blown out of the window with the same callous disregard, without the risk of any face-to-face comeback. One second you arc there, (65) you are deleted.