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I got on Facebook last Christmas, so I was a little late.
I look at some linked profile pages, and see that some everyday people, who aren't famous or pillars of the community, have around 500 to 1,000 friends.
Seriously. How does an average person rack up a friend count that is THAT high? Most of these people are, or seem, like real glad-handers and these friendships have to be superficial, because most people could never have meaningful relationships with that many people, let alone stomach the news feed from that many people.
They add everyone and anyone they run into. People they passed by in the halls from elementary through college, people from work, that one girl at the bar they went to last night. Everyone.
Oh, yeah, I know ... but where do people drum up 1,000 people? I've gotten answers above, but it seems to be flaky.
If you really want to see if they're friends, announce that you are moving and see how many of them show up to help you load the truck!
A few months ago I was browsing through my friends list and dropped about 50-60 people. People whom I haven't seen in years, never chat with on FB, or were already ignored for posting stuff that annoyed me. I think some see it as a status and popularity thing.
It is really easy. I have 500. Of those, I'd say around 50-75 are people that I correspond with regularly. They are in a few classes:
Close friends
Acquaintances I want to get to know better (i.e. people I like, but don't see as often as I would like to)
Close relatives
Distant relatives (I've got about 50 distant cousins in my friends list. Maybe more. We have reunions, so it is a good way to keep in touch between events)
High school classmates
College classmates
Current co-workers
Former co-workers/colleagues
Friends of friends
People I am networking with
Acquaintances I don't really care about
The people in the first 3 groups I pay the most attention to. The other people (besides the last one) are people that I'd try to meet up with if I am in their area to reconnect. The last group I should weed out, but I don't have time for that. But it isn't harming anything.
Oh, yeah, I know ... but where do people drum up 1,000 people? I've gotten answers above, but it seems to be flaky.
Honestly......if I wanted to it is definitely possible to drum up 1000 people, without a ton of effort
I am in the 500 person club, but I don't friend everyone I meet.
I lived in a 200 person dorm my first 2 years of college. I knew 80 of those people.
The last 2 years I lived in an 800 person dorm. I knew probably 300 of those people.
I definitely knew another 100 people in college from outside of the dorms.
My high school class had 400 people, I knew 200 of them. Plus another 100-150 in other classes and from clubs.
My family reunion has around 120 attendees and 200 invites. This is for one branch. I could then look up the other cousins and such from other branches and find another 80.
That's 880 right there.
Add in coworkers from the past couple of years: that's around 50 people. Neighbors I know fairly well: 20. Significant others of those people would add another 30ish people.
People I have met at networking events and conferences over the past couple of years: another 100ish.
There you go, 1000 people. Not even including the friends of friends, random people you meet at the bar or a party and are interested in.
And of course I could go back to look up elementary and middle school people.... old neighbors....
Some people come into contact with a lot more people than others. I work in consulting, so in a given year I'll meet around 50-75 new people from work stuff.
And then of course on my own, I'll meet more. I usually meet around 5 new people a month that I would friend on facebook via events and outings with friends and coworkers. Or random acquaintances.
People who play a lot of those Facebook games like Farmville or whatever end up friending a lot of people. Other than that, I know people who use Facebook for work/networking reasons or who run clubs and teams who end up with hundreds of friends.
I only friend people I actually know and have spent time with. I would never friend people I've never met or only met once. What a waste of time and space! I don't get these people who rack up "friends" online with total strangers all over the world. It's like they're trying so hard to prove something: I'm cooler than you nyah nyah nyah! How sad.
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