I reluctantly joined FB to connect with others who share an interest in an activity I love. My user name is not my real name and I have zero FB friends. I am an extremely private person and I am uncomfortable with the oversharing which occurs on FB. I explained to the people in my group that I have a zero friends policy to avoid drama. Most are very understanding about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like to add my kid's friends' parents because then it's really easy to text them on FBM and we don't have to exchange phone numbers etc. to set up play dates.

So it's kind of annoying when people won't take new friend requests. I don't really want to be your new BFF. I just want to text you to invite your kid over to play with mine.

Then ask for thier cell number.

NP. A lot of people don't like to talk on the phone and prefer to text.

Think about yourself. Do you ever receive actual calls anymore aside from businesses? No it's all text.

I'm a writer for a niche publication serving a very specific community. If I allow anyone to send me a friend request I get, no exaggeration, about five friend requests a week from total strangers who have read my stuff. I know I don't have to accept them, but it's annoying and part of me feels bad if I don't accept them.

And for the “just decline” people. Look. If you think there aren’t real life implications to declining a fb friend request, you’re in denial. You can decline, and then there will be awkwardness. Or, you can just eliminate the awkwardness altogether by fixing your settings so they can’t request you.

I used to have it like this for work reasons. Then I just deactivated. Some people’s lives are incompatible with Facebook.

Anonymous wrote:Because there are a bunch of spammers and catfishes the friend request you

And then you can just decline. People can't add you without you accepting it. It's disabling the ability to add at all that the OP is asking about.

Anonymous wrote:I like to add my kid's friends' parents because then it's really easy to text them on FBM and we don't have to exchange phone numbers etc. to set up play dates.

So it's kind of annoying when people won't take new friend requests. I don't really want to be your new BFF. I just want to text you to invite your kid over to play with mine.

Then ask for thier cell number.

I have psychologist friends who have their Facebook set this way because they don't want clients/clients' parents to be upset when they do not accept their friend request. They also do things like go by their first name so that they are difficult to look up.