I have some weird criteria when it comes to "friends" on Facebook. Does this make me snobbish or weird?
If you are genuinely my "friend", you can be my friend on Facebook.
If you are in my familiy, you can be my friend on Facebook.
If we work together, you can possibly be my friend on Facebook.
If you are someone I met randomly and we hit it off, you can be my friend on Facebook.
If you are someone I went to school with, and we maintain in some sort of contact (via Facebook or e-mail, or phone, or IM), you can be my friend on Facebook.
If I only vaguely think your name is familiar, and we went to high school together, I have to wonder why the hell you want to be my "friend" on Facebook. Is it because you genuinely want to know what I've been up to since May 2001? If I say that you're my friend, you're never going to write on my wall or e-mail me, so what's the point? I don't necessarily have any ill feelings towards you, but I just don't think you have a need to know about what's going on in my life if I can barely remember your name and don't remember what you look like. If we went to high school together and you're married with kids, chances are as soon as you see my full profile you will write me off as persona non grata anyway. What are you going to get out of being my friend other than the privilege to nose around my photos?
If you're from college and we took some classes together, I don't mind being your Facebook friend. But honestly, I possibly don't remember you either unless I immediately write on your wall something about how it's been so long. Sorry. Names from people in college are even more elusive to me than names from high school. Isn't that weird?
However, if you're a professor I took a class from I'd love to have you as a Facebook friend.
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6 comments:
I don't like the whole idea of friending and unfriending. Making it official like that. Asking someone if I could be their friend is not something I think I'd do in any context.
Aw. Friending and unfriending has a different connotation online I suppose. A "friend" I have on Facebook may or may not be someone I would consider to be a "friend" in real life. . . . mostly I just think people from my past who are looking me up just want to snoop and see what kind of trouble I'm getting into these days. . . if they had any balls about it they would send an e-mail and ask.
Still, what if someone you knew IRL wanted to be your friend, and you had to refuse them because you really didn't want them to be your friend, at least not on Facebook. Wouldn't that kind of suck?
If you ran into them IRL you'd have to say, "Oh it's just Facebook" Don't worry about it..
Don, see #1 in my criteria. :)
I can kind of see what you're getting at though. I post some stuff on Facebook that I think a lot of people find inflammatory. I've only had two people rant at me about it. One of those people is not my Facebook friend anymore and the other person probably ignores my postings.
I feel exactly the same way! I really think people just want to be "friends" with hundreds of people so they feel special, as if they have 300 friends in real life.
Hey Krista! :)
Yes, I kind of get that feeling too. "Let's get 300 or 400 friends so I can bolster my self-esteem and make myself feel like I really have that many people I can call up and ask if I can crash at their place for a night and feel they would probably say 'yes'."
What disturbs me more is when I read a name that sounds like someone I should know, but have no idea what the person looks like or where I know them from. And then even after I see their pictures I still have no clue who they are. Then I have to wonder if I can delete them as a friend and if they'd notice. . . . .
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