30 Comments »Bobbie Johnson has posted an interesting article about Facebook whales. According to a recent New York Times article, people with more than 800 friends are perceived as insecure. Good think I currently have 760 friends! I should avoid approving my more than 200 friend requests so that I can maintain my personal security. Honestly though, I probably personally know a little over 500 of my contacts and the remainder are readers from my site. My younger cousin has over 1,000 friends though and is still in college.
I’d assume that college students and high school students are more generous with their adding of friends. Honestly, it is pretty difficult to know over 1000 people but for super networkers it is definitely feasible. Just think of all the people on LinkedIn with over 800 contacts. Are all those people insecure? I think some of them definitely are but not the majority. Then again we all have our own insecurities.
How many friends do you have? Do you think 800 is too many?
“According to a recent New York Times article, people with more than 800 friends are insecure.”
yo, Nick, the study concluded that people with over 800 friends were “perceived” by others to be insecure. It did not conclude, like you said, that those people (w/over 800 friends) were actually insecure.
And again, please, hire a proofreader!
I fixed the statement Mark. Don’t think it makes a huge impact there given that you were the only one to comment but either way it has been fixed. Why hire a proofreader when you will come comment on the post?
“According to a recent New York Times article, people with more than 800 friends are insecure.”
yo, Nick, the study concluded that people with over 800 friends were “perceived” by others to be insecure. It did not conclude, like you said, that those people (w/over 800 friends) were actually insecure.
And again, please, hire a proofreader!
I fixed the statement Mark. Don’t think it makes a huge impact there given that you were the only one to comment but either way it has been fixed. Why hire a proofreader when you will come comment on the post?
When I read this post I couldn’t help but laugh.
I have a little over 1400 friends and the only reason that is, is because I use friend requests to reach out to others to network with them.
It has worked well for me so far as I have met 19 year old CEO’s and people who I can literally call them on the phone and pick up right where we left off.
When I look at someone who has a lot of friends, it tells me that they are open to meeting new people, and are not afraid to speak with someone they do not know.
When I read this post I couldn’t help but laugh.
I have a little over 1400 friends and the only reason that is, is because I use friend requests to reach out to others to network with them.
It has worked well for me so far as I have met 19 year old CEO’s and people who I can literally call them on the phone and pick up right where we left off.
When I look at someone who has a lot of friends, it tells me that they are open to meeting new people, and are not afraid to speak with someone they do not know.
I’m 27 and I have 121 friends on Facebook. I’ve observed that people who are older than me tend to have less, and younger people tend to have more friends added than I do. 300+ seems common for people who are still at university.
It’s like the average number of friends is inversely proportional to age.
Personally, I only add people that I actually know in real life, that I would say hello to if I met them on the street.
What an idiot.
The last 26 years of my life I’ve gone to 7 schools, have played with dozens of sports teams, have worked at probably a dozen places of employment, have volunteered in the community, traveled internationally, have a large family, &c, &c, &c…
Do the math.
I’ve come across thousands of different people during my short life. In the next 26 years I’m likely to meet scores more people as my social abilities and spheres of influence increase.
Eventually - soon, proabably - social networks will allow us to maintain communication with virtually everyone we will ever know. And that is a lot more than 800 people. Maybe not for everyone, but for any truly social being, yes.
And do I have some kind of complex because of any of this?
Sheesh. I’m heading over to this guy’s article…
I’m 27 and I have 121 friends on Facebook. I’ve observed that people who are older than me tend to have less, and younger people tend to have more friends added than I do. 300+ seems common for people who are still at university.
It’s like the average number of friends is inversely proportional to age.
Personally, I only add people that I actually know in real life, that I would say hello to if I met them on the street.
What an idiot.
The last 26 years of my life I’ve gone to 7 schools, have played with dozens of sports teams, have worked at probably a dozen places of employment, have volunteered in the community, traveled internationally, have a large family, &c, &c, &c…
Do the math.
I’ve come across thousands of different people during my short life. In the next 26 years I’m likely to meet scores more people as my social abilities and spheres of influence increase.
Eventually - soon, proabably - social networks will allow us to maintain communication with virtually everyone we will ever know. And that is a lot more than 800 people. Maybe not for everyone, but for any truly social being, yes.
And do I have some kind of complex because of any of this?
Sheesh. I’m heading over to this guy’s article…
we’re kickin’ Nick around on this thread, too:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=644693...
we’re kickin’ Nick around on this thread, too:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=6446939157&ref=mf
Facebook can be used for so many purposes! I use it for networking and ministry. I’m a youth pastor, so it’s the perfect way to keep in touch with my youth group. From scheduling events to actual counseling, Facebook is a great tool in my career.
Plus, I write regular youth columns that are read by nearly 100,000 youth every month in several countries and I often speak at youth conventions. Many of my friend requests come from those readers and attendees.
[...] there have been some blogpostings about the amount of friends people have on Facebook. AllFacebook posted an entry about how many is too much and cited an article in New York Times according to [...]
Facebook can be used for so many purposes! I use it for networking and ministry. I’m a youth pastor, so it’s the perfect way to keep in touch with my youth group. From scheduling events to actual counseling, Facebook is a great tool in my career.
Plus, I write regular youth columns that are read by nearly 100,000 youth every month in several countries and I often speak at youth conventions. Many of my friend requests come from those readers and attendees.
[...] While I believe that the next step would be to have custom privacy settings, this is a great step by Facebook. I am immediately going to go group my friends just as Mark Cuban described last night. This is a really great feature and I’m sure it will help many of us that have a friend list that is way to long (or as some would argue, the insecure group). [...]
Mark,
I couldn’t see the thread for some reason.
Any idea why?
Mark,
I couldn’t see the thread for some reason.
Any idea why?
scott,
it works for me, it’s a FB discussion, are you on FB?
scott,
it works for me, it’s a FB discussion, are you on FB?
scott,
it works for me, it’s a FB discussion, are you on FB?
800 friends eh! How about someone who is a natural connecter in business. Since I use Facebook as one of those wonderful ways to network in the business world I can see my list growing well over 800. I have 4500 contacts in my Microsoft Outlook for example, and I never know when I need to call upon any of them for something or other.
Interesting posting, I can see the point from someone who uses Facebook as a way not to go outside, however, for someone who uses Facebook as a business tool, going over 800 can happen easily.
Cheers
Stuart Crawford
Calgary, AB
800 friends eh! How about someone who is a natural connecter in business. Since I use Facebook as one of those wonderful ways to network in the business world I can see my list growing well over 800. I have 4500 contacts in my Microsoft Outlook for example, and I never know when I need to call upon any of them for something or other.
Interesting posting, I can see the point from someone who uses Facebook as a way not to go outside, however, for someone who uses Facebook as a business tool, going over 800 can happen easily.
Cheers
Stuart Crawford
Calgary, AB
800 friends eh! How about someone who is a natural connecter in business. Since I use Facebook as one of those wonderful ways to network in the business world I can see my list growing well over 800. I have 4500 contacts in my Microsoft Outlook for example, and I never know when I need to call upon any of them for something or other.
Interesting posting, I can see the point from someone who uses Facebook as a way not to go outside, however, for someone who uses Facebook as a business tool, going over 800 can happen easily.
Cheers
Stuart Crawford
Calgary, AB
I think that anyone who is not using Facebook for work and network purposes and has more than 400 friends is somewhat insecure. These people are simply listing people who are not friends but just acquaintances. They have meet them maybe a few times but no longer regularly, and probably didn’t even know (or couldn’t remember) their surname or what they do for work etc. If they were about to get married would they be inviting even a third of these friends? Of course not. I also think anyone using Facebook for it’s original purpose with over 400 friends, tends to be an extreme gossip monger and very nosey. However I also agree that the next generation of Facebook users under 15 will end up exceeding 400 by 30 years of age as they have used it for 15 years, not 2 years.
I think that anyone who is not using Facebook for work and network purposes and has more than 400 friends is somewhat insecure. These people are simply listing people who are not friends but just acquaintances. They have meet them maybe a few times but no longer regularly, and probably didn’t even know (or couldn’t remember) their surname or what they do for work etc. If they were about to get married would they be inviting even a third of these friends? Of course not. I also think anyone using Facebook for it’s original purpose with over 400 friends, tends to be an extreme gossip monger and very nosey. However I also agree that the next generation of Facebook users under 15 will end up exceeding 400 by 30 years of age as they have used it for 15 years, not 2 years.
I think that anyone who is not using Facebook for work and network purposes and has more than 400 friends is somewhat insecure. These people are simply listing people who are not friends but just acquaintances. They have meet them maybe a few times but no longer regularly, and probably didn’t even know (or couldn’t remember) their surname or what they do for work etc. If they were about to get married would they be inviting even a third of these friends? Of course not. I also think anyone using Facebook for it’s original purpose with over 400 friends, tends to be an extreme gossip monger and very nosey. However I also agree that the next generation of Facebook users under 15 will end up exceeding 400 by 30 years of age as they have used it for 15 years, not 2 years.
I agree with Nathan entirely. People using FB for normal purposes (ie: keeping in touch with ‘friends’) shouldn’t have more than around 100-400. Again the age does seem to be inversely proportionate, and so it should. But as many can agree, why bother adding 700 people you don’t even know? To read senseless bs in your home page thread? Or to have random people spy on you? Personally I like my privacy and don’t see why I would add anyone I didn’t know well enough to talk to on at least a weekly basis. And I also agree that the people with way too many ‘friends’ on FB do tend to like gossip and talk behind peoples backs. People that try to please everyone and have everyone like them. Again I’ve noticed that people still in school tend to have high numbers. Probably becuase they see it as a sort of popularity contest. They think it makes them cool. Whereas adults understand that you don’t need a million friends to be cool and that being cool doesn’t really get you anywhere in life. For the guy that has over 4,000 contacts I highly doubt you remember who to contact for whatever purpose you need at any given time. Seriously I bet you only recall about a hundred or so and have a few regulars you call upon. And besides, do you htink all of them even remember you? How many times have we all had the conversation, “I don’t remember you…”, “neither do I. How did we meet?”. Yup time to delete a few of those. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
–And that’s what grinds my gears, Diane
I have over 1000 “Facebook friends” and I’ll honstly say that approximately 1% of my list are actual freinds. However, I use my account for business purposes. Examples of this are my use of Facebook to attract people to my events, promote products, find resources, attract talent, and more. For this reason it pays to be connected to as many people as possible. Does the fact that I have found out a way to utilise my Facebook account to suit my business needs/wants make me insecure?
i have over 2000 friends on facebook and i don’t see that as a trait.