Facebook apparently doesn't subscribe to the idea that when you lose contact with someone it is often for a good reason. Sneak, who once started a group on Facebook just for the pleasure of kicking everyone else off it, does.

Because of this, he's rather disappointed to have started to get messages via Facebook encouraging him to reconnect with people that in the real world he would choose to avoid through such drastic measures as hurling himself under a train.

Like some sort of pushy mother, concerned that her 33-year-old son doesn't have enough friends, Facebook, the social networking site, has become social busybody, and started hurling ghosts from the past into the faces of people who have probably suffered enough already.

The new feature, launched this weekend along with a confusing new Live Feed/Live News Feed split on the homepage, has not only irked Sneak, but also a lot of other users. Not least of all because it has in some cases urged them to reconnect with dead people, animals, and people that they used to be in relationships with.

The twitterati has of course gone mental for it. And everyone who ever thought of a snappy screen name for themselves and has 140 characters to burn has been quick to comment on the feature.

Sneak's favourite post so far comes from daveisanidiot, who sounds a lot like a sulky, younger brother pushed into hanging out with a sibling.

'Dave' said, "Facebook told me i should reconnect with my sister. You're not the boss of me Facebook!"

26 Oct 2009