For me, I have about 300 friends on my Facebook. Compared with last year, the number of friends has decreased in fact since I have been deleting some for my own good.
I have a friend who never cares about the privacy problem in Facebook. Whenever someone add her, she will just accept it. I once asked her 'Don't you worried about your private life? Everyone on your list could see ALL your photos and friends and other personal information!' She said she doesn't care about it yet she started deleting her 'friends' after a few months because of a few incidents. First, she realised someone who downloaded her photos and opened a new account adding her friends. She also received messages of nuisance often sending to her by her Facebook friends that she don't even know.
About two years ago, the US fast food shop Burger King launched a Facebook apps which encourage people to delete their Facebook Friends! ( you can read more about it here.) Users were able to get a free burger by deleting 10 Facebook friends and the result is that 233,906 friends were removed in less than a week by different people! From the large number of friends being deleted in such a short time, it has reflected that people are really having many unimportant friends who they are willing to sacrifice for a burger!
Of course, it is not necessary to delete all friends who we are not so familiar with. We need strong ties as well as weak ties friends in our social lives. Yet for those we have never seen and even heard about, whats the reason letting them to spy our personal lives?
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回覆刪除Hhahahahahaa So interesting! I didn't know about this facebook app. It is true that we have so many unimportant friends in our friend list if we look at our 'friends' one by one. Sometimes I am not sure how to classify people into different friendship, like people that we have met or talked once, or people who are your primary schoomates but you never contact them. If you remove them from friend list, might create an impression that you are not a very nice person to get along with.
回覆刪除However, another reason to keep so many 'friends' for some people is probably they want to identify themselves as a very popular person. They don't care about who those 'friends' are but only care about the increasing number of 'friends' in their friend list.
That's surprising to see that people are really having many unimportant friends who they are willing to sacrifice for a burger. I have many friends in my Facebook account but indeed I have never thought of deleting them. Perhaps it's a high time for me to delete some of them to protect my privacy from being intruded.
回覆刪除Ursula: Yes, we really need to think before we add someone since it seems impolite to unfriend them afterwards.
回覆刪除Besides the reason you mentioned, I think some people have a large number of facebook friends due to their job nature. Such as one of my model friends have more than 1000 friends on her list as she said she don't want to miss any potential job opportunities! It is also her wish to let more people to know her. Of course, in this case these people need to be even more careful with the information they share.
Aimee : Maybe you are careful enough in selecting who to add as your friends so you don't have this problems? When I first opened my Facebook account, I was not aware of the privacy issue enough and add someone easily.Therefore, there are 'rooms' for me to make my friend's list 'cleaner'. =p
回覆刪除This is interesting... And I believe I can get around 4 Whopper if I participate in this... Sometimes, it has become a norm to add friends even if you have just met them once... And for me, sometimes I have to add friends who I didn't know I know them cause it seems impolite not to accept them as friends... And I guess I will clear some of my friends away after graduation...
回覆刪除Secret:haha I think it is okay to unfriend them afterwards, it will be less embarassing when you don't need to see them anymore. Sometimes I wonder why it becomes a norm, nowadays the first questions being asked by a person who you just met becomes 'Do you have Facebook?' other than ' Can I have your number or MSN?' Yet the chance of knowing the person deeply becomes more difficult indeed... what do you think?
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