Purging people

As I was adding a new number to my cell phone, I noticed just how many numbers I still have crowding my address book that I haven't used in years, and likely will never use again. I can't imagine any circumstance in which I would feel the desire to call my old supervisor from the Target I worked at 3 years ago, but if the need arises, I'm prepared. I have no way of knowing if most of these numbers are even accurate. Some numbers just have a first name attached to them - a name which has no meaning to me. I have no idea who Susan is, but I can call her with just a simple click.

It takes me far to long to scroll through the list of numbers to get to the person I actually want to contact. It' s impractical and cumbersome. But the idea of deleting any entries just seems so wrong to me. Just poofing them away, like they never existed. vanishing into cyberspace. Its so final, such a dramatic way of cutting off any line of contact.

There's also a bit of ego involved. My big list of numbers feels a little like my own private facebook friends page - it may serve no practical purpose, but it makes me feel popular to see this big list of people who deemed me worthy of exchanging phone numbers with. Yes, most of them just gave me the number so I could call the about group projects or other mundanities, but it still counts, at least to me.

I don't purge my facebook friends list either, and for much of the same reasons. There are probably at least 50 people on there who I barely remember, but I'll never cut them out. It always seems too cruel. Occasionaly I'll glance at my number of "friends" and notice that its a few numbers smaller then I remember. I can never figure out who cut me out, which usualy means I don't really remember them and can hardly blame them from culling me from the herd. It still stung a little. It may not really matter, but removing those little cyber ties still has a bit of a bite. It seems a little too middle-schoolish, "we're not friends anymore so I'm just going to delete you from my life". So even with a cell phone list that no one but me sees, I just can't bring myself to hit the delete button.

What about you? Are you frequent purgers, or do you hold on to numbers, just in case?