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Facebook -- Playing a Numbers Game

......its the chat room of the 21st Century! People use Facebook (FB) for many different things. I personally use it to aid in the growth of my photography business and to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances that I’m unable to see on a regular basis. Last week, as I was uploading some sample client photos, I noticed that I had almost 400 FB friends. My husband and I had previously discussed the plausibility and possibility of someone personally knowing 400 people….I do know that many and more, but admit that I don’t have a personal relationship with each and every one. I just know them and have spoken with them at some point in time.

However, I believe there are those who use FB as a private popularity contest with others, to see how many “friends” than can acquire….their own little numbers game for secret bragging rights. Sounds weird I know, but women do that sort of thing.

While I haven’t always been able to see or speak to every single friend I have on FB, I occasionally scroll through my friend list and leave a “how ya doing” message for the ones I haven’t spoken with recently. Sometimes I get a response, sometimes I don’t. I don’t now how many people are in the practice of doing this, but its what I do. While scrolling through my list last week, I decided to conduct a little experiment to see how many of the people on my personal friend list actually pay attention to their friends. So, with mouse in hand, I started deleting my FB friends to see how many would actually notice that I am MIA from their friend list. I’m 2 weeks into this project, have pared my friend list down to 135 and have had only 1 person request to add me back as a friend. One!

How about you? Do you speak to your FB friends on a regular basis? Do you even know them? Or are you playing the numbers game?

I’m just sayin’,

--Margo

Comments

Edward G. Roberts said…
If it weren't for the restraining orders I'd have a lot more friends.
Friday, March 05, 2010 3:32:00 PM
Chris Barnette said…
Oh so that’s what happened to you LOL..Just kidding..Recently I went through my list as well and cleaned a little house. I like to try to comment or at least click the like button for my friends letting them know I read their post. I think they need a like button on here :-) The big problem I see with having hundreds of friend is it turns into thousands of status updates. Also my daughter recently posted something about how she didn't need 20 updates about what animals or crops her friends bought on Farm town. I think the friend collecting was big on MySpace but for the reasons mentioned above I think people are losing interest in seeing how many they can collect. Good post

PS..lol Edward..hope your doing well
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:05:00 AM
Benita said…
Thank you both for your comments...Edward, don't forget about the restraining orders in place from family members.

I'm getting ready to post a follow-up blog.... :-)
Friday, April 02, 2010 8:47:00 AM
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