The problem with the current state of friends list in social tab is that it's not refreshing properly and frequently enough staying dramatically outdated. Swithching worlds can sometimes force the refresh but doesn't always work. Then the only option is to restart the game itself. And it is very annoying.
What i'm suggesting is small refresh button for a friends list which would forcefully refresh it. If you don't want it to overload your servers then give it a 3 minutes timeout before we can click it again.