MySpace is not MyHeart

Here's one for you... Musical: The Musical. One thousand Vietnamese children dressed in rags swarm the stage.

Wait, sorry, I mean: online friends lists. Is it really a faux pas to just remove someone from your friends list on a community web site without telling them when or why? I've removed several people from MySpace, Facebook and the like - some by mistake, others very much intentionally - and several of these deletees have then gotten in touch to ask why, usually hurt and offended by it.

To me, being hurt when you're removed from a digital list seems a little irrational, I've been removed from people's friends lists and it hasn't sent me spiralling into depression. Am I just too anti-social for the social web? Should I receive some form of internet ASBO?

On the flipside, is anyone else scared when they add co-workers to their friend lists? Do equally irrational thoughts like "What if they think my layout's crap?" or "What if they see how many times my status changes on Facebook when I'm supposed to be working?" snarl your guts up?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.