Friends

[Angelina1239]

Thinking about the definition of what a friend is, why do many people have so many Facebook friends?
It seems ridiculous over a certain number. If someone has for example over 500 friends, it is time to question what they are aiming for.

I deliberately nurture a small number of trusted friends with whom I have regular contact. I do not care about being generally popular. Maybe that comes from being older.

 

[Lamb]

I have over a thousand Facebook friends...and now let me explain why.

I went to a somewhat large high school where there were 333 kids in my graduating class (not that I have all of them as friends on Facebook). Plus, I had friends from upperclassmen and lower classmen when I was there during my 4 years.

Then I also have friends from where I went to art school. I never want to let those connections go!

Then there are neighbors we had while I was growing up, friends from 2 churches, Girl Scouts friends since I was a troop leader for multiple troops, friends from work, and online friends I've known for over a decade.

Plus, of course my family and my husband's huge family!

It all adds up and I enjoy seeing what other people are up to and watching relatives grow up as well as their own children. I don't add friends for popularity. I have them because I know them in some way and am interested in keeping in touch.

OH and I can't forget the one older lady who gave me a friend request thinking I was someone she knew because of my name. I friended her anyway because she was so sweet and we communicate often in our posts and have fun.

 

[tango]

Thinking about the definition of what a friend is, why do many people have so many Facebook friends?
It seems ridiculous over a certain number. If someone has for example over 500 friends, it is time to question what they are aiming for.

I deliberately nurture a small number of trusted friends with whom I have regular contact. I do not care about being generally popular. Maybe that comes from being older.

I don't even know who is on my facebook friends list and I don't really care. If I see someone's posts and would rather not I drop them from whatever list they are on.

I don't share anything even remotely personal, and everything I do share is public. Hence I don't really care who sees it.

I'm quite pleased with the fact that if I look at my profile of what they think interests me, they are about as wrong as it's possible to be. Last time I looked they had my hobbies and interests totally wrong, my political leanings wrong and my religious leanings wrong. This suits me just fine - a faceless corporation doesn't need to know my preferences.

 

[Angelina1239]

I don't even know who is on my facebook friends list and I don't really care. If I see someone's posts and would rather not I drop them from whatever list they are on.

I don't share anything even remotely personal, and everything I do share is public. Hence I don't really care who sees it.

I'm quite pleased with the fact that if I look at my profile of what they think interests me, they are about as wrong as it's possible to be. Last time I looked they had my hobbies and interests totally wrong, my political leanings wrong and my religious leanings wrong. This suits me just fine - a faceless corporation doesn't need to know my preferences.

So why waste time on people who most certainly are not friends.
I now nurture only those who are known to me, family and close friends. At the very least I make sure we have interests in common.
It is important to whom we allow access to our lives?

 

[Lamb]

So why waste time on people who most certainly are not friends.
I now nurture only those who are known to me, family and close friends. At the very least I make sure we have interests in common.
It is important to whom we allow access to our lives?

Because sometimes THEY need a friend to pray for them

 

[tango]

So why waste time on people who most certainly are not friends.
I now nurture only those who are known to me, family and close friends. At the very least I make sure we have interests in common.
It is important to whom we allow access to our lives?

Because I don't use social media as a primary way to interact with people. I don't regard anything I do on social media as nurturing anything - if I want to spend time with friends I'll hang out with them, call them, text them, or do something for just the two of us even if it is limited.

A post on social media isn't my idea of interacting with friends. As I already said I don't post anything personal on social media so it's not as if random people getting on my friends list represents a problem to me. Just about all of what I post on there are silly memes and one-liners. If they make a total stranger laugh all well and good. If total strangers don't like them, well, nobody is forcing them to read it.

 

[Stravinsk]

I have a small number of FB friends, all of which are people I actually know, or did know, in life. The list is hidden from the public and only seen by friends. What I found amusing was, after I posted a video which unintentionally showed me logged in (and thus displaying my list of friends), it became clear to one person ( a distant relative ) that I actually had friends, and they friend requested me. I declined their request partly because I've never met this distant relative and partly because I felt the request was only made once he realized I wasn't a total FB loner.