Popularity on Facebook
By angelia286
@angelia286 (2029)
Singapore
July 26, 2008 6:05pm CST
Many people boast hundred over friends in social networking websites such as facebook and friendster. But, how many of these 'friends' are actually people they personally knew?
Do people add strangers as friends just to boost their popularity counts, or are they genuinely interested in making new friends? What do you think?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@klaudine (3650)
• Indonesia
27 Jul 08
Before my account in Friendster got hacked, I used to have more than 1000 friends. I was thinking about having my second account when I met facebook. I don't have that much friends there. Besides it's not too popular around my friends, it is more private than Friendster. I become more and more selective in adding friends in Facebook, it's only 200 of them, and yeah they are all my friends, some of them are my RL friends, and some my virtual friends that I met in games or forums.
I don't really care about popularity in friendster or another social networks. Adding friends has no bad effects on me, and being popular is not a plus factor for me, so I don't really care if I become popular or not. But if I can make friends with more people, why not?
1 person likes this
@klaudine (3650)
• Indonesia
27 Jul 08
No I am not that nice, I just like to talk to new people, having a good discussion. And I am enjoying having a good relationship with many people. Actually I got many friends in the net, I even met my current girlfriend in the net. I met many opportunities in the net, so I believe in net-friends.
In facebook, I usually knows them from the groups, I share some stories in the group discussion, and have new friends with the same interests, from there, they added me and we become friends too :)
Well, I actually want to invite those kind of people (who only add friends to get popular) to be my referal in Yuwie. They add people and I got the money... lol.
1 person likes this
@angelia286 (2029)
• Singapore
27 Jul 08
Haha, you are a lot like me in this sense! ^5 man!
I really love meeting friends from all over the world, and learn about their culture and their way of life in their country. It is really interesting to find that there is so much difference in the way people live, and people beliefs even though you might be of the same race! I remember I used to have penpals years ago, before the internet became such a huge success. I still miss the personal touch though. Hmm..
Aww.. its so sweet that you had met your girlfriend through the internet. The internet is really a great help in our lives isn't it? Btw, where do you meet her, and how did both of you hit off?
@angelia286 (2029)
• Singapore
27 Jul 08
That's a good attitute to have. Of course, why not? If adding strangers to the list is for knowing them better and becoming friends with them, it is definately not a problem. You must be a really nice person to have know that much people =)
The problem lies in that there are people who are adding strangers to their list just to boost up their friends count, so as to get the limelight. That, is something which I don't respect. There are people who add me in facebook and after that, just sort of disappeared. Messages to them went unanswered and I checked they are still logging in. It seems to me that these are the people who are adding people randomly just to appear to others that they are popular. Lol
Anyway, nice to meet you! =D
@Gorcon (320)
• United States
27 Jul 08
Half of the people added on Facebook are friends of friends and one-time acquaintances that they've met in class or randomly somewhere. I think serious Facebook users don't really care about "popularity." They genuinely use it to keep in contact with people they know really well (i.e. friends and family).
@angelia286 (2029)
• Singapore
27 Jul 08
Thanks for taking your time to respond =)
It's nice to hear that the people on your 'Friends List' in Facebook are actually people you knew personally. Lots of people are just adding people randomly just to hit that popularity score.
I agree with you that most of the users use it to keep in contact with people they knew really well. I use it for that reason too. (that is why I have only around 30 people on my list). Lol.
@Gorcon (320)
• United States
27 Jul 08
yeah I really, really am skeptical when people have 200 to 300 friends... I doubt that they know each and every one of them personally. I think for those people they're not familiar with how to properly use social-networking sites and just add anyone they find. Usually these turn out to be younger kids like high school and middle school students who have no idea how dangerous the internet is and that not everyone is becoming your "friend" because they really like you and think you're a great guy/girl.
Personally, I like Facebook alot better. It's just that they added so many stupid applications that clutter up the profile pages (and makes them look like myspace pages) and makes it extremely frustrating when I try to post on someones wall, because it takes me a good 5-10 minutes looking for their wall.
@angelia286 (2029)
• Singapore
28 Jul 08
=) Are you also belonging to the generation of the dinosaur phones and pagers? Lol.
Yes, I agree with you on that. Young kids nowadays just has no concept that it's a bad world out there and there are predators on the internet too. They have this feeling of importance and self-worth when they think that they are popular. This is a sad fact that people can't change. And that is where parents step in too.
I never really did like myspace and facebook actually. I prefer friendster because of it's clean cut format and layout. However, recently, friendster is also becoming more and more like facebook. The reason why I am using facebook is just to keep in contact with my overseas friends who are in America and Australia. (The people there just have facebook, myspace but not friendster). But, majority of my friends are on friendster. =)
Thanks for sharing with me your thoughts and opinions. I really did enjoy reading your comments!
@desertdarlene (8911)
• United States
27 Jul 08
I don't really add strangers to my friends list on Facebook right now. All my friends are people who I've either met, or businesses I've done business with, except for one. Most of my Facebook friends are actually my relatives. I don't really go to Facebook anymore, now, but my cousin really likes it and uses it all the time.
@angelia286 (2029)
• Singapore
27 Jul 08
Yep, there would always people who likes using it and there would always be people who are the direct opposite. I happened to be the one in the middle. I like Facebook, but I seldom log on into it to do stuff unless there is updates that interest me. Lol. =)
@liquorice (3887)
•
27 Jul 08
No, I don't accept anyone as a Facebook friend who I don't actually 'know'. In fact I have to know them pretty well, as I just want to use it to keep in touch with the people I really want to be in touch with, and have a proper 'friend' relationship with.
It's my main way of keeping in touch with some of my friends and I share things on my profile page that I wouldn't want to share with people who don't know me, or don't know me very well.
If someone I don't know well invites me to be there friend I always decline, but I look at how many friends they have, and usually they have hundreds. So the reason they want me to add them is probably because they just want to collect friends. I don't want to be friends with people like this.
Mylot is different because we don't have such personal info. on here, and I don't actually 'know' anyone on here in real life. This is somewhere that I come to make new friends, whereas Facebook is something I use to keep in touch with the friends I have already.
@angelia286 (2029)
• Singapore
27 Jul 08
No misuse of the social networking websites detected here. Lolx =)
That is actually the whole purpose of the networking websites such as friendster, myspace and facebook. It's just that some people misused the idea and decided to make it as a popularity contest to see who could add the most friends and who is more popular.
Join the club of old birds like us who don't misuse it, and rather, use them as per their purpose ^5!
Yes, mylot is good in that sense where interaction takes place with strangers and we could get a grasp of their personality and charactor before deciding to be friends with them. Much better than those networking social websites!
@goddessofbeauty (713)
• Philippines
27 Jul 08
Sometimes, I add friends just because I want to gain more facebook friends. There are some though that I haven't met in person, but we have some mutual friends in the same field.
