Don't dis me cause I got 'Friends'

Facebook "friends" - bringing a whole new 20th century meaning to "faking it"!

Actually I don't think it's like this at all. This blog post parallels that written by Rachael. The problem stems from Facebook itself having chosen such a simplified singular wording - friends - to represent this folder in which are stored all of your contacts. These contacts could have been added for any number of reasons as people's purposes for using Facebook differ, and the nature of their contacts differs likewise.

Rather significantly I feel, 'Friends' on Facebook are more fluid than friends in 'real life'. Those who you choose to associate regularly with can change depending on your current situation - what part of the world you are living, what career change you just made, right down to what lectures you are actually attending! At the same time, circumstances can just as much bring past friends back together. Facebook and social networking sites facilitate this fluidity extremely well.

Secondly, once a contact has been added, it is highly unlikely that you would ever delete them. Therefore, those who were close contacts whom for whatever reason are no longer so, are likely to remain in your "contacts" list forever. It is only inevitable that over time, people's "Friends" are going to grow so as to be a misrepresentation of their actual status. Unless, Facebook limited the number of 'Friends' significantly from the current 5000 limit then people will not need to adjust their friends list accordingly.

However, care should be taken not to dis those who have a large number of Facebook 'friends'. The reality is that, just because one has added a contact in Facebook which inevitably will be added to a folder called "Friends" does not mean that this Facebook determined term is suitable for all of ones contacts. Additionally, it means that the 150 friends study IS compatible with somebody who has a total number of contacts far in excess of that as the fluid nature of friendships in modern society becomes a significant factor.