Do Facebook Users Have a MySpace Mentality?
Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 14th, 2007 10:49 AMToday there is some discussion about Facebook users’ willingness to add strangers as friends. Apparently they are not as selective as once thought. In a test by IT security firm Sophos, a random selection of 200 individuals were sent friend requests by a fake user. 43.5 percent of those individuals accepted the friend request. That’s an extremely high number considering the stigma that Facebook users were more selective with their friends.
Since creating this blog, I have added a significant number of friends that are readers of this blog but I don’t really know them. Robert Scoble has been one of the chief offenders as well. So what is acceptable? Technically whatever you want but I think the stigma still exists. What is your policy with adding friends? Do you accept strangers or do you reject them?
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August 14th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Hell no! Strangers can get lost!
p.s I also doubt that 200 people is an accurate test case of 30 million!
August 14th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I don’t need to have met somebody in real life, but I do need to at least have a passing familiarity with them via their blog, or maybe a message we both frequent, etc. A total stranger though..no way.
I had an interesting quandry this week. I was friended by a casual business associate, not somebody I’d particularly want tracking what movies I watched last week. I was concerned not accepting would offend her. It worked out though, when I logged it the request was gone. She must have realized she accidentally sent a bunch of requests upon importing an address book, and edited after the fact appropriately.
I’m seeing a similar thing on Twitter. I’m followed by people who have nothing in common with me, and quite frankly I can’t fathom why they bother. I don’t really care though as I’m very close to quitting Twitter. I get nothing from it.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:55 am
damn right.. I refuse ALL random strangers.
Thats why i binned MySpacker and its game of who can get the most friends. (i think I had 72 quite fit ladies who I never met!!!!!)
I read an article today in UK’s IT WEEK (13.08.07 - Vol10 No32), called “Businesses have to face up to my Facebook”
“Sophos, the online security giant, has added a new question for IT Mnagers in its latest Security Threat report. It reads ‘Why haven’t you blocked MySpace in your company?’. The Security vendor obviously regards IT managers that allow users to MySpace as highly irresponsible.”
This is just Sophos now saying that FB users are just as willing to collect as many friends as possible..
reminds me of those Head and Shoulders ads on TV.. 74% of those polled said no visible dandruff (then in tiny writing at the bottom.. distance 4m 132 people polled)
August 14th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Hell no! Strangers can get lost!
p.s I also doubt that 200 people is an accurate test case of 30 million!
August 14th, 2007 at 11:49 am
I don’t need to have met somebody in real life, but I do need to at least have a passing familiarity with them via their blog, or maybe a message we both frequent, etc. A total stranger though..no way.
I had an interesting quandry this week. I was friended by a casual business associate, not somebody I’d particularly want tracking what movies I watched last week. I was concerned not accepting would offend her. It worked out though, when I logged it the request was gone. She must have realized she accidentally sent a bunch of requests upon importing an address book, and edited after the fact appropriately.
I’m seeing a similar thing on Twitter. I’m followed by people who have nothing in common with me, and quite frankly I can’t fathom why they bother. I don’t really care though as I’m very close to quitting Twitter. I get nothing from it.
August 14th, 2007 at 11:55 am
damn right.. I refuse ALL random strangers.
Thats why i binned MySpacker and its game of who can get the most friends. (i think I had 72 quite fit ladies who I never met!!!!!)
I read an article today in UK’s IT WEEK (13.08.07 - Vol10 No32), called “Businesses have to face up to my Facebook”
“Sophos, the online security giant, has added a new question for IT Mnagers in its latest Security Threat report. It reads ‘Why haven’t you blocked MySpace in your company?’. The Security vendor obviously regards IT managers that allow users to MySpace as highly irresponsible.”
This is just Sophos now saying that FB users are just as willing to collect as many friends as possible..
reminds me of those Head and Shoulders ads on TV.. 74% of those polled said no visible dandruff (then in tiny writing at the bottom.. distance 4m 132 people polled)
August 14th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I have a lot more friends than you :p
August 14th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I have added strangers - but they are strangers that have qualities that i admire or want to learn for personal benefit. So - yes, they are strangers but they will soon be mentors.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
On Facebook and Friendship…
…
August 14th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I wrote about this yesterday as well. Social networks rely on having some kind of connection between users. For general purpose social networks, such as FB/MySpace/Twitter, the utility of them is zero without it. If you add random people, that’s all your social network is… just a bunch of meaningless connections.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I have a lot more friends than you :p
August 14th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I have added strangers - but they are strangers that have qualities that i admire or want to learn for personal benefit. So - yes, they are strangers but they will soon be mentors.
August 14th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
On Facebook and Friendship…
…
August 14th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I wrote about this yesterday as well. Social networks rely on having some kind of connection between users. For general purpose social networks, such as FB/MySpace/Twitter, the utility of them is zero without it. If you add random people, that’s all your social network is… just a bunch of meaningless connections.
August 15th, 2007 at 6:58 am
I’ve never had “total strangers”, but some request with little point (“OMG!!! You lov Paris 2!… We MUST b frnds!!!”)
I tend to accepted them (you never know what a stranger can bring you), and erase them a few days after that.
August 15th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I’ve never had “total strangers”, but some request with little point (“OMG!!! You lov Paris 2!… We MUST b frnds!!!”)
I tend to accepted them (you never know what a stranger can bring you), and erase them a few days after that.
August 15th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
i think there’s an implicit premise that social promiscuity must remain stable over time. this notion is wrong. look at sexual promiscuity in the us. who would have thought the free love era was possible coming out of the 50s. who would thought that we would become more sexually conservative coming out of the 60s and 70s? supposedly the kids today are sexually promiscuous again. and did sophos check the control by sampling social permissiveness on myspace? there are three populations on myspace: the socially restrictive, fake profiles that will do anything, and socially open profiles. making sweeping generalizations without a stating a model of changes over time, understanding the distinct populations within a network, and checking controls is WEAK science. hey but we can’t expect too much thinking from the blogosphere can we?
August 15th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
i think there’s an implicit premise that social promiscuity must remain stable over time. this notion is wrong. look at sexual promiscuity in the us. who would have thought the free love era was possible coming out of the 50s. who would thought that we would become more sexually conservative coming out of the 60s and 70s? supposedly the kids today are sexually promiscuous again. and did sophos check the control by sampling social permissiveness on myspace? there are three populations on myspace: the socially restrictive, fake profiles that will do anything, and socially open profiles. making sweeping generalizations without a stating a model of changes over time, understanding the distinct populations within a network, and checking controls is WEAK science. hey but we can’t expect too much thinking from the blogosphere can we?