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It's hard to not generalize that this applies to every single kid out there. I just graduated so I never this before, but it might be more prevalent to high school students than to college students. All I know is that all my facebook friends are real friends and people I know (except for a few acquaintances).
I have 60 friends. Only 4 of them are people I haven't met in person. They are actually from an artist social site that I belonged to years ago and made such a connection we trusted each other enough to exchange real names and become Facebook friends. If I ever have the cash to fly out to California they would be eager to met me. We have a lot in common. I think Facebook is too open now and having a ton of friends on there becomes dangerous especially now with the new FB format that pretty much killed privacy.
I thought FB was pretty cool at first but as the years go on, I hear more and more about people being fired from jobs, having arguments with loved ones and so on. I have had issues unfortunately. I have had my friends get into tiffs with each other on my wall over stupid things. I have had people get cruel for no good reason. People get bold and say things they probably wouldn't say in person. I have had old HS friends find me on there and I later realize they are complete freaks. I had my in-laws on my page which was the biggest mistake ever. They are not computer savvy and didnt understand how to work it. Plus they don't like me they only requested me to spy. They thought things on my wall were for them personally. They took offense to me posting a political article that spiraled into a horrible scene that was completely ridiculous and embarrassing. My husband had to get involved and we ended up not speaking to his one sibling for almost 8 months! The relationship hasn't been the same. People getting upset when you don't want to accept them. It really is a hassle.
I think Facebook has done more to destroy real communication and friendship than anything invented. Some of my nephews who are in High School or College are spending an incredible amount of time and effort getting people to agree to be friends on Facebook. In many cases the person getting the "friend request" will check out how many friends you have and if you are not Facebook Friends" with at least 200 people and the top people in school they will reject you. Once the word gets out that people are rejecting your Facebook Friend Requests your social life is shot.
What a sad state of affairs!
Think it's just high school? I have a 40 year old friend who does this. Strangely, it seems like most of the people on his friends list, don't have much good to say about him.
Facebook is just superficial crap. How many friends you have on that thing doesn't mean a damn thing. Some may sign up on facebook and not really try to find people to be friends with or they may just sign up and see how stupid it is and just leave their profile on facebook with maybe just a few friends.
I don't know though...maybe HS kids and some college kids think this indicates your popularity or whatever, but people need to grow up with this whole facebook deal. It's just a pretentious social site and people are only showing the good parts of their lives on there.
I signed up for it right when it came out and have been on it for 5 or so years I guess and probably had 200 to 300 "friends" on there, but I got sick of it and don't use it anymore.
Waste of time and it's just crap. It makes me dislike people even more.
Until a few years ago, Myspace was so much better. If it had some of Facebook's features (without Facebook Friends but with following a certain group plus writing on the Wall with privacy options including whether or not to see everyone else posts even if that person is not on your Friends list) and used some of it's own not found on Facebook (including the option to browse for people at a certain distance and whether or not they're online) then Myspace would be a no-brainer social networking monopoly.
I think Facebook has done more to destroy real communication and friendship than anything invented. Some of my nephews who are in High School or College are spending an incredible amount of time and effort getting people to agree to be friends on Facebook. In many cases the person getting the "friend request" will check out how many friends you have and if you are not Facebook Friends" with at least 200 people and the top people in school they will reject you. Once the word gets out that people are rejecting your Facebook Friend Requests your social life is shot.
What a sad state of affairs!
Guy, this wasn't how it panned out at the university I attended. Nobody really cared much about Facebook rep.
While I do agree facebook is destroying some social stuff I think the OPs case is extreme, and probably an exaggeration from the nephews or the OPs side.
But like most of the university I'm more or less forced to have facebook, it's either having facebook or being completely out of the loop about what happens and what events are around town.
Everybody here should learn Facebook's privacy settings. Even if you friend someone like your hated in laws you can block them from seeing ANYTHING you post. So you dont have to offend them by not friending but they can't spy on you at all.
Everybody here should learn Facebook's privacy settings. Even if you friend someone like your hated in laws you can block them from seeing ANYTHING you post. So you dont have to offend them by not friending but they can't spy on you at all.
Not entirely true. I say this because this is exactly what I did in the beginning. I blocked them from seeing my wall. Then FB changed the settings where it became obvious you were blocked. For example, before the change if someone clicked on your name, your wall was frozen in time from when you blocked the person. It basically looked like you just didnt get on that much. Then FB changed it where if someone looked at your wall, it would give the person the message they were unable to view your wall. For the savvy younger in-laws they knew what was up and told my MIL. Drama. I finally deleted them all and let them have their fit.
Now FB has changed again. I have privacy set up but with the new settings, if your friends don't make the privacy changes, then your private conversations show up on their wall so their friends to see. For example, my husband is friends with his family. If he comments on my post, it shows up on his wall. What I said and what he said. I had him set up the privacy. Its a two step process now. Its really all just a damn hassle. I read a FB blog the other day and it was so many pages long I couldn't get through it all. People are really angry. The ones that aren't angry simply don't understand how open they are. A friend of mine said I was overreacting, that he is totally private. I said oh really, well how is your friend Donna's dog doing? He was like huh? How do you know Donna? I said I don't but her conversation showed up on my wall. He was like wow. Yep.
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They took offense to me posting a political article that spiraled into a horrible scene that was completely ridiculous and embarrassing. My husband had to get involved and we ended up not speaking to his one sibling for almost 8 months! 
The relationship hasn't been the same. People getting upset when you don't want to accept them. It really is a hassle.
