From Friends to Frenemies: Don’t ‘Facebook-Faux-Pas’
Only the closest of friendships are genuinely robust. They will stand the test of anything: time, argument, misunderstanding, overcommunication, insults, ignoration, everything. No matter what you do, real friendship survives.
It has always been like that, even long before friendships were cemented on virtual platforms in social networks such as Facebook.
As Facebook continues to grow exponentially, it becomes easier and more tempting for people to connect.
The average person only has a handful of really close friends, the average number of close friends in America is 9.
The average number of friends people have on Facebook is 120.
Doing the math, and I am aware of the dangers of over-generalisation, but just bear with me on this one: 120 minus 9 leaves 111 friends who are not ‘close’.
Now these friends may not be close friends, but they are worth having. They are people that were connected to the tribe at some point in time, and no doubt they add lots of value to the experience of the Facebooker in question.
The relationship with these 111 friends, however, is more fragile and because most Facebook users are reluctant to ‘disconnect’ virtual friends, they tend to remain part of the tribe, even when they probably shouldn’t.
According to Computerworld.com, especially women are annoyed with their friends when they continue to get interrupted with useless or irrelevant communications on Facebook.
Computerworld lists the following top ranking ‘Facebook Faux-pas’ (yes, that’s plural):
- Facebook faux-pas: Complaining
- Facebook faux-pas: Updating your status with every move
- Facebook faux-pas: Bragging
- Facebook faux-pas: Unsolicited political views
The top two being the ones that lead to a Facebook user’s updates getting excluded from the Live Feed, and the first progression from ‘Friend’-status to ‘Frenemy’-status is complete.
Continued on the next page
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