A Long Island man said he lost a score of Facebook friends — including the best man at his own wedding — when he posted a picture of himself and his wife at the victory party for President-elect Donald Trump.
Gary Pollakusky from Rocky Point said he noticed about 100 friends missing from his friends list after he changed his profile picture to a snap of him and his wife Jeanine in front of a Trump/Pence backdrop at the Midtown Hilton where Trump held his victory party.
“It wasn’t until probably a day or two day later that I started to look at my news feed again to see the pictures of puppies and babies that I was hoping people were posting again and one of those folks that I was looking for in my feed was my best man and I didn’t see anything,” Pollakusky told The Post.
“I clicked his profile and realized he had deleted me and we weren’t friends anymore.”
Pollakusky, a self-proclaimed “proud Republican,” said he had about 2,000 Facebook friends before the photo and within a couple of days, it dropped to about 1,900. One of the defectors was his best man, a friend from college he’s known for over 20 years.
“It’s disheartening … he’s a hot head liberal,” he said of the friend.
“I like people with differing opinions than myself it makes the world go round… This election so clearly infected his world to a point where he felt the need to delete me.”
Not only was Pollakusky deleted, but his wife was also deleted along with other members of his wedding party that supported the Trump campaign.
“It’s a sad state of affairs if you can’t handle a profile pic. This is a friend from college, a friend who I got his first job, as much as I could’ve done for this particular friend throughout my life, I’ve done,” Pollakusky griped.
“To see friendships affected by this is sad… we should be able to objectively incorporate two or three sides into our own communication, respectfully and tactfully.”
Ironically, Pollakusky runs Media Barrel LLC, a company that helps businesses with their social media presence. He teaches organizations how to cater certain posts to specific groups to avoid any digital uprisings.
“We work with clients to limit the exposure and the ferocity of your post by creating friend lists and excluding folks from certain posts that may cause contention… in this case all I did was put up a profile picture.”
Even though Pollakusky is an expert in keeping high social media numbers, even he couldn’t stop slews of friends from deleting him.
The Post reported earlier this month that the election can do “irreparable harm to relationships,” according to friendship expert Dr. Irene Levine.
Data backs this up — a Monmouth University poll taken in September found 2-in-3 voters believe this year’s presidential race brought out the worst in people and 7% of voters said they’ve actually lost friends as a result.
As far as Pollakusky’s best man goes, the verdict is unclear if they’ll be friends again. He hasn’t heard from him yet and said “a good old fashioned telephone call” could work, but it remains to be seen if either of them will pick up the receiver.
“America’s ready to move on, and so am I, with or without my best man.”
(via: New York Post)
