Why do you Facebook?
Eric Crees is a first-year student at St Olaf College. When I told him I was going to do a “Facebook friend purge,” this was his immediate response: ”It’s not like you have a limit of how many friends you can have.” He makes a good point, technically there isn’t a limit to how many people you call your “friends.” So why not hit “confirm” every time you have friend request? It’s not hurting anyone?
Ryan Cordell would disagree. In his article, “Unfriending for Sanity,” Cordell talks about the outrageous number of “Facebook friends” users have. When one has so many Facebook friends that their mini-feed is clogged up with pictures of people who’s name you don’t even recognize, then Facebook isn’t being used a way to connect with people. It becomes a phonebook.
Depending on one’s intended use for Facebook, the number of friends you may have varies. Contrary to a high school freshman’s belief, each person’s “friend list” isn’t a popularity contest. It’s merely a signifier of each users personal purpose for using Facebook.
If you’re like my grandmother who made a Facebook to see pictures from her granddaughter’s prom and her niece’s wedding, then you have 6 friends.
If you’re like my dad, who swears he only has a Facebook for “Business purposes,” you’ve got about 42 friends.
If you’re like my mom, who complains that she hates Facebook but is REQUIRED to have one for the PTA, then you’ve got about 160 friends.
If you’re “that guy” at college who just friends every single person on your school’s network, then you’ve got…..a problem.
Personally, I will admit I have more “friends” on Facebook than I really need or want. Most of my friends are people from elementary school, high school, and now college. There’s the occasional summer camp friend I want to stay in touch with, or the random third cousin who I’ve never actually met, but for the most part, the people who come up on my mini-feed are people who I’m actually interested in connecting with…or so I thought….
When it came time for me to actually do my “friend purge,” I realized there were so many people that I didn’t actually know face-to-face aside from maybe seeing them in the school hallways. I decided to “unfriend” them. And even though I felt kind of guilty, I also felt weirdly cleansed at the same time. My mini-feed is that much more interesting because I’m seeing stories about people I really care about connecting with.
Question of the day: Why do YOU Facebook? Please comment!
