How can you be friends with 300 people?

[Anonymous]

I was reading the Facebook thread about defriending half of her friends so she ends up with a small list of 300 meaningful friends. I wonder how one keeps up with 300 friends. How does your friendships look like? What does meaningful look like?

[Anonymous]

I'm not that person, but. I have something like 87 friends, and half of those are family. Maybe she's got a much bigger family. I could see it. I mean maybe she's got a slew of high school friends, a slew of college friends, a slew of first few job friends, a slew of cousins, then all their significant others. People can add up.

Everyone uses FB differently.

[Anonymous]

I have nearly 700 FB friends. Some of them are family, some are coworkers and previous coworkers, and some of those current/past coworkers are/were true friends. Of the rest, some are from high school, college or grad school, and some are close friends, but others are lesser friends. A few are people I've dated. There are also people from church, social groups, the beach where I have long spent my summers, bartenders from the places I frequent, parents I've met through my daughter, etc. I would say that I consider quite a few of the nearly-700 to be "friends" but more of them are something between friend and acquaintance. (Before FB, I had a similarly large circle, but I didn't get to see their daily postings, which I like.)

[Anonymous]

I have just over 200 friends. 90% of them are family. DH and I both came from very large Catholic families. The other 10% are former classmates, coworkers and neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Having 300 "friends" on Facebook is the 21st century's answer to having 300 names in your address book. It means nothing.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who teaches computer science at a university. The guy friends his students on FB (beats me, why, but it's another issue) so, his list of 'friends' is quickly approaching a thousand.

Of course, you can't be real friends with a thousand people, but, friendship is not what FB is about.

[Anonymous]

Many words have different meanings in different contexts. These days, the word "friend" is one of them. In the FB context, "friends" commonly includes your real-life friends, as well as your relatives, friendly acquaintances, former friends/coworkers/classmates, or anyone else that you don't interact with on a regular basis but you are still interested in keeping up with the highlights of their lives. I'm not someone who posts everyday details on FB like what I am eating or when my kid poops on the potty, but I do try to update things like a new baby, new job, new city, etc., and a couple of times a year I put up a few photos of my family. I like knowing that level of detail about people even if I'm not in regular touch with them. I actually rarely interact with my "real life friends" on FB because they already know a lot more than I would ever post on FB. It's just a totally different animal.

I know some people have no interest in keeping up at all with anyone they would not consider a friend in real life, and that's cool too. But I guess I'm just curious about people, and considering how many FB friends others seem to have, I suspect I'm not the only one.

[Anonymous]

I have almost 300 fb friends, and my requiremenst for friending them is do I know them(I get many request of people I just dont remember) and do I care to hear about what is happening in there life. I have a bunch of highschool friends on there I wouldnt ever see in real life but I do like to hear how they are doing, and I dont see a problem with that

[Anonymous]

i have about 300 friends too. not all are true friends, but they are people i'm fond of and i want to know how they're doing.

[Anonymous]

I had nearly 800 kids in my graduating high school class. I went to a small private college, but a giant state run graduate program.

I have about 350 friends. I recognize all of them and know why we are "facebook" friends, even if a bunch of them I have not seen or heard from since HS.

[Anonymous]

Why do some of my "friends" who I know in real life and who "friended" me on FB NEVER EVER "like" or "comment" on my posts? What was the point of friending me? I have commented on their posts at one point but they never reciprocate. And I don't post often, just big stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do some of my "friends" who I know in real life and who "friended" me on FB NEVER EVER "like" or "comment" on my posts? What was the point of friending me? I have commented on their posts at one point but they never reciprocate. And I don't post often, just big stuff.

I don't "like" anything because that's just silly. Are you really waiting for a majority of your friends to approve your vacation photos?

I don't post comments because when you post something, you are not talking to me, you are broadcasting your news to the multitudes. All responses are similiarly broadcast, which is not something I want to do.

If you want to tell me something or I feel inspired to comment on something you've posted, I'll send you a private message. Otherwise, you can assume I still "like" you and if I did post, it would be something utterly pointless, like "Wow! Looks like you're having a great time!!!!!"

[Anonymous]

I've got a relative who I'm pretty sure has over 1000 Facebook friends. She has been a local high school principal/teacher for many years, and once they graduate, all her former students friend her. She's a pretty active user too, so it's almost like a Twitter account for her.

[Anonymous]

I have just over 500 friends. It's my family, my husband's family, and actually a lot of other "family" like my 3 of my cousin-in-law's families (met at weddings and holidays) my co-workers and past co-workers, friends, husband's friends, and my "core groups" from the different areas of my life - elementary school, high school, college, law school, internships, travel abroad program... it adds up.