Here's a NUDge: National Unfriend Day

Have you ever been approached by some higher-up at work to be their "Friend" on Facebook? If so, you might have accepted their Friend request out of respect / fear. Jimmy Kimmel has called for a National Unfriend Day (NUD) to get rid of these faux friends.

Jimmy Kimmel used the Wednesday’s episode of his "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show to declare November 17, 2010 National UnFriend Day. He hopes the new "holiday" will unite Facebook users in a move to unfriend those social networking contacts they have that aren’t real friends.

Naturally this could extend to any other social networking service, as well. Here's what his site says:

Jimmy Kimmel has declared a new holiday on November 17th - National UnFriend Day. NUD is the international day when all Facebook users shall protect the sacred nature of friendship by cutting out any ‘friend fat’ on their pages occupied by people who are not truly their friends. Get ready to unfriend!

Here are some simple guidelines:

• If you wouldn’t loan someone 50 dollars, unfriend them.
• If you wouldn’t invite them to your birthday party, unfriend them.
• If you wouldn’t cry if they got hit by a bus, unfriend them.

It doesn’t have to be a hostile thing. They might not like you much either. And the day to do it is November 17th.

We'd actually disagree with guideline 1) above: lending. One hard-and-fast rule we stick by is to never lend a friend money. More from Kimmel, on how to determine if your Facebook friends are real friends:

Here’s how you can tell who on facebook is really your friend:

On Friday, post a status update that says “I’m moving this weekend and need help.” The people that respond — those are your friends.

Everyone else isn’t.

Watch a pair of videos from Jimmy Kimmel's show on NUD, including both Dr. Mehmet Oz, on how it will make you healthier, and William Shatner.