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.

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 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!!!!!"

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.)

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.

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?