You do not become a person’s friend by adding them on Facebook, liking their pictures, or occasionally poking them. A real friendship definitely does not start this way. Normally, you meet a person face to face, and get know them gradually before you call them your friend. It’s like we’ve taken a vow “I hereby add you as my friend, to only look at and occasionally like your pictures. Some people will claim to know you but only know you from following you on social networks. Why is this okay? Why is it okay for us to have 20 friends in real life, but over 2,000 on social networks?
Why are your social networks so important to you? Why is it important for your profile picture to be popping, and your page to always be jumping? Why go through all of that? It’s because your profile picture is what people look at first. So, of course, you’re going to set it as the best picture you have. With all the filters and apps now, people tend to edit their pictures to enhance themselves. People always look at your profile page – just to get an idea about you. Your profile can exist of places you like to go (whatever makes you look exciting), movies you enjoy (movies you think other people watch), and activities you part take in (things you probably don’t really do but sound interesting). You want your page to look good to everyone else, so you add these things about you.
Do you really know who you’re friends with? When you accept a friend request, did you even look at their profile to see if you knew them, or you did just hit add with no second thoughts? Don’t feel bad if your answer was yes; we all do it. Why do you think we all have so many friends who we’ve yet to meet and probably won’t ever meet? Maybe we add them because we have mutual friends, or – the obvious reason – they’re attractive. Since your friend is friends with them, what’s the harm in you being friends with them too? If they are so very attractive, why not add them, because of course all you want to do is look at them. Now that you’ve added them, what you share is now open to this complete stranger, but the weird thing is that we are okay with that.
How many friends would you have if you stayed true to only adding people you truly knew – people who you’ve gone to school with, family members, coworkers, anyone you grew up with. But, then again, are these people really your friends, or do you just know them well enough to say “Hey” when you see them? It’s difficult distinguishing your actual friends from your “friends” on social networks. Here are some questions you can ask yourself: Do I hang out with them; do I have their numbers; could I ask them for help if I needed it? I’m sure that just took the list from 2,000 to about good 20.
So remember these people are not your friends. They are just on your timeline for entertainment.
