# Facebook Friends



## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

How many facebook friends do you have? What is your "criteria" for adding friends?

I have... 35. :| i was just looking through my friends list and noticed my 10-year-old cousin (or is she younger?) has more friends.

What I'm curious about is why someone choses to add someone else as a friend. I'm more curious to address this to non-SAers but I don't have any groups of people to ask. :/ I admit that I'm afraid to add a lot of people, but the ones I do add are those I've at least had a short conversation with and who I wouldn't mind stayig in contact with or who I am interested in (staying friends, getting to know them, or even just reading up on their posts or photos, etc). What I notice is that people who I know don't want to get to know me add me... I mean random kids from a grade 10 class who I have never even spoken to. I REALLY don't get that. I think I had up to 60 people on my list then deleted a bunch because I didn't see why I should have them on there. Then I proceeded to feel like a bit of a loser since I've only ONCE so far seen someone's page who has the same or less amount of friends.

Actually an example of how people just add whomever they feel like it even if they have no connection whatsoever: For english lit class we had an assignment where we had to make 5 facebook profiles for 5 characters from _The Wars_ by Timothy Findley and have them interact with eachother.. so far at least one complete stranger tried to one of the characters/profiles, wtf? I didn't even know them. I thought that was strange.


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## mserychic (Oct 2, 2004)

I think I have 3. Never go on there though.


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## tribute311 (Apr 8, 2008)

don't even worry about it. people with 500 friends probably don't even talk to or care about 400 of them. its annoying really. its fake.


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## Lateralus (Oct 28, 2007)

I think I have 210, and about a third of them are people I don't even know or ever talk to. As for the others, I generally see or talk to them once in a while and maybe 20 of them frequently.


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## dsf23j9j2dlm (Mar 22, 2008)

i don't have a facebook but if i did i wouldn't have any friends to add.


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## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

Lateralus said:


> I think I have 210, and about a third of them are people I don't even know or ever talk to. As for the others, I generally see or talk to them once in a while and maybe 20 of them frequently.


i dont' know if this is a stupid question - but how do you chose to add someone? i'm sitll in high school so i assume in college you'll meet a whole bunch of people right away. once you meet someone once do you just add them without really thinking about it?


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## Mr. Orange (Apr 20, 2008)

350 something. But I am in no ways as "popular" as that might indicate :lol

Who has 800+? Impressive!


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## Mc Borg (Jan 4, 2008)

mrdrinkinglysol said:


> i don't have a facebook but if i did i wouldn't have any friends to add.


:ditto


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## Shauna The Dead (Jun 16, 2005)

382. I add everyone. 
I'd probably "win" if this was a myspace question instead, I have like 42,000 or 43,000 on there :lol But I've had my myspace account since the beginning! Way before most people even knew what a myspace was. And I have a friends only account with maybe 180 or so people on it just for people I know and talk to.


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## Lateralus (Oct 28, 2007)

nothing to fear said:


> i dont' know if this is a stupid question - but how do you chose to add someone? i'm sitll in high school so i assume in college you'll meet a whole bunch of people right away. once you meet someone once do you just add them without really thinking about it?


Well, I wonder the same thing still...so I just add whoever requests it, hence the third or so that I don't even remember ever meeting. But in terms of people that I _send_ requests to it's mostly classmates and friends from home and high school. I have maybe 20 or so that I met travelling and added in case I ever need a place to stay in Australia or Hawaii etc.


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## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

Lateralus said:


> Well, I wonder the same thing still...so I just add whoever requests it, hence the third or so that I don't even remember ever meeting. But in terms of people that I _send_ requests to it's mostly classmates and friends from home and high school. I have maybe 20 or so that I met travelling and added in case I ever need a place to stay in Australia or Hawaii etc.


okay.. that makes sense. sometimes i don't add some people that request me. i don' know why actually. i either forget or don't care or don't want that person reading my page.


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## kee (Sep 22, 2008)

120. I'm not friends to the majority of them, but they are all people I know/met in real life.

If not, I won't bother.


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## shyvr6 (Feb 18, 2008)

I don't have an account or even want one, heh.


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## Just Lurking (Feb 8, 2007)

I have all of 15, most of whom are family.

Some people's big numbers may come from the fact they never or rarely reject friendship requests. My sister's an example of that.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

I don't use fakebook


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## tiberius (Feb 9, 2007)

I have around 120. If someone requests me as a friend I usually accept if I have met them at least a couple of times. I send friend requests myself mainly to people in three categories:
1. My current friends whom I see frequently
2. Former friends whom I don't see that often anymore (like childhood and school buddies)
3. People whom I have recently met and whom I probably will or would like to see more in the future


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## CopadoMexicano (Aug 21, 2004)

none


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## quietgal (Oct 18, 2007)

I don't even have a facebook account now, but when I did, around...30, 40? I don't remember. Most people were just from my classes, and I didn't talk to any of them. Eventually I deleted it because I just thought it was kind of superficial, and I never went on anyway. Plus, at the time they didn't have a lot of the privacy features they have now.


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## estse (Nov 18, 2003)

I have a face. No friends on my face.


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## Zephyr (Nov 8, 2003)

shyvr6 said:


> I don't have an account or even want one, heh.


:ditto

I'm bound and determined to be the last person on earth without a facebook account. I can do it I know I can! Rah rah rah-rah-rah!


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## VCL XI (Jan 19, 2004)

I've never had a facebook account either. By the time that site came around I already had accounts with Myspace, Friendster, and even Makeoutclub when it was just a minimal black page of random scenesters. I used those strictly for pseudo-stalker activities rather than actual friend-making anyway.


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## ANCIENT (Aug 9, 2005)

i used to have a myspace. i used to have like 30 friends and i only talked to 6 or 7 of them. i had my friends list and comment box hidden and my friends (3 of them) were always complaining about it and how my page looked so plain. one day i got mad and deleted my account. i kind of regret it, though. that was the only way i was in contact with most of them.


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## 2Talkative (Nov 1, 2007)

79 old friends..... facebook is crap but I refuse to remove myself from it since it seems to me to be a cop out and a way for my anxiety to win.


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## Kelly (Dec 12, 2003)

116. I know 97% of the people in person. The other 3% are people I know fairly well from the internet, either here or from another message board.

Have a nice day,
Kelly


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## Hoppipolla (Apr 11, 2007)

I have 134.
Most of the are HS classmates or family friends.


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## Paul (Sep 26, 2005)

I'm necromancing this because there's news on the subject: http://gigaom.com/2010/10/11/while-malaysians-are-social-butterflies-japanese-are-online-loners/

The average Japanese user has 29 social networking friends. So near 80% of SASers are more popular than the average normal person of Japan, by this measure.


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## Deathinmusic (Jun 5, 2009)

18. I try to add only people I have met in real life or at least have talked to online and feel aren't basically strangers. I did add a few youtube SA people I haven't really talked to, so that was kind of dumb. I always obsess too much about how consistent my behaviour is.

I have searched for some old school friends and people from my past but I haven't sent them a message or a friend request because I'm too embarrassed to let them see how pathetic my life has turned out... I wouldn't know what to say to them.


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## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

Since making this thread I have added 25 more friends!! :O (Most have added me first and most are not actual IRL friends and are online friends or relatives [some I never see]). 
Now I almost never see or talk to any friends, I was quite social then in comparison. :| At least I have another a very close friend now.


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## anonymid (Oct 16, 2005)

16


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## LatchKeyKid (Jul 30, 2010)

Holy thread necrophilia, Batman!

A few weeks ago, I disabled my facebook profile in frustration. My friend count then was about 170, but it didn't matter as I never spoke to any of them. What a useless site for someone like me! I'd build a phony persona, complete with a myriad of fake friends, and I hated myself for it.

For the longest time, I considered facebook a popularity contest: your social life reduced to a single all-important number. Even though I was "losing" I had to keep trying. In my desperation, I accumulated those 170 friends over a time span of five years. It was a waste, of course. In all that time, I failed to make a single _real_ friend, a person I could trust and have fun with. It's incredible, and it makes me intensely sad.

In my current mental state, as much as I may want to, I can't be a real friend to anyone. As a consequence, I've had to become a hermit for the time being. If my mind ever manages to sort itself out, I'll happily reenable my account and begin really connecting with people. I dread to think how long that might take, though.


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## mysterioussoul (Jul 17, 2010)

nothing to fear said:


> How many facebook friends do you have? What is your "criteria" for adding friends?
> 
> I have... 35. :| i was just looking through my friends list and noticed my 10-year-old cousin (or is she younger?) has more friends.


i only have about 40. ha, my younger cousin also have more friends contacts than i do. i don't really care. most of the people on my friend's list are people i actually know even though i don't really keep in contact with them.

what's weird is that i've been getting friend's requests recently from high school peers that i don't even talk to, even in high school. i was invisible during high school so it confuses me why they would want to add me. i guess they just want to extend their list.


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## equiiaddict (Jun 27, 2006)

I have somewhere between 230 and 250.


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## Shauna The Dead (Jun 16, 2005)

I already voted a long time ago, but now I'm up to almost 5,000...I've reached my "limit" :roll


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## BrokenStars (Dec 10, 2010)

I don't even know why I have a facebook. I suppose it's fun to :lurk but overall it's pretty lame. People make stupid statues...like I really care about when you're going to bed or that you have school in the morning.









I have 76 friends, but I talk to like 3...one being a friend from high school, my dad and we live in the same house :um and my dads friend. :roll lolz..


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## rainbowOne (Sep 26, 2010)

332. Theyre all people I know and would like to keep in touch with, I regularly 'clean up' and delete people I dont talk to.


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## Aphexfan (Jan 12, 2011)

I have 189...though I only talk to about 5 or 6 of them, Idk not really a big fan of facebook as of lately it seems more like high school online.com then an actual place to meet friends and talk to people :stu


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## rawrsmus (Feb 6, 2011)

203 "friends" at the moment, but I only really interact with around 30-40 of them on facebook.

The rest are previous classmates and relatives.


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## estse (Nov 18, 2003)

I had two.


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## Paragon (Apr 13, 2010)

I think i'd have very few, which is one of the (many) reasons i don't have a facebook account. I don't want people to know how much i suck at being social :/

As to who i'd add, it depends. If i was secure in how many friends i have and confident to say you know what, i don't know that many people and it's fine by me, then i'd just add friends, family, and aquaintances i see semi-regularly. Maybe the odd random person if i happen to have a good conversation with them or something. Adding people randomly online? Probably wouldn't do that.

As it is i'd probably just add anyone i talk to who'd add me, and accept any old friend request. So it's probably a good thing i don't have one eh?



Annnddd i just saw that this thread was made in 2008.

--

Other reasons not to have a facebook acc: coworkers turning your facebook page into office gossip (they do it all the time with other ppl who work here), drama over bull**** like relationship status, tagged photos, stupid status updates, facebook games, privacy issues, popularity contests, people from your past you dont want to talk to adding you, seeing everyone elses better social lives, etc.

So far the only reasons i've found to ever genuinely want a facebook account are a couple people i know who organised stuff on facebook, and being able to add random people you talk to - it's more casual than asking for a phone number i think.

Maybe i'm taking it too seriously, i don't know. Is it possible to have a facebook account and not care / worry about all that rubbish?


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