<p>Like this: when I discover that ppl disappear from my friends list, i always search for their name. of course "mutual friends" can confirm if it's defriending, but sometimes the name doesn't appear even if it has mutual friends with you (and isn't deactivated). of course, with deactivated accounts, search doesn't show up their names. But neither with accounts with no mutual friends (which may still be active). Maybe it's less of a concern for most people now, since most of their friends are mutual friends with a lot of their other friends; but it might be more of a concern for those with lots of internet friends.</p>
<p>or for that matter, if you notice that a friend is "gone’, do you even bother to check whether it’s a defriending or deactivation? and if not, what do you assume it is?</p>
<p>I don’t remember ever doing that until a few days ago. I tagged one of my friends in a pic and then when I went to see a comment she left, I realized the comment was gone and her name in the pic was no longer clickable. So I looked and she was no longer on my friend list, nor was she on anyone else’s. It was strange.</p>
<p>Lawl, in fact this happened to me about a week ago. I was fairly ****ed off for a few minutes before I realized that he deactivated his account.</p>
<p>I suppose there’s some law or county ordinance that stops you from just texting, emailing, or talking to this friend and asking them if they deactivated their account or not.</p>
<p>If I’m missing a friend, I don’t bother to go through ALL of my friends on my friend list to see which one is missing. I’ve defriended people before, but only if it’s someone who I never talk to, never will, will never see again, and maybe not even recognize. And if they feel the same way about me I doubt they’d notice that I defriended them.</p>