Periodic Fable

Steve Wheeler prompted quite a lot of comment recently when he posted a “rant” about whether or not Facebook is worthwhile.

“It’s just possible that the guy who cut you up on the way home yesterday (you know, the one you exchanged angry words with from the safety of your own driving seats) is the same one you are having a poke exchange with tonight on Facebook. The woman you looked daggers at this morning at the superstore when your trolleys clashed could be the same one who sends you a pomegranate tree this evening on Farmville. You just don’t know for sure, because a lot of your Facebook friends aren’t really friends at all – they are actually strangers. And if you did meet them in the street, they wouldn’t have ‘Facebook user’ stamped on their foreheads that’s for sure. Some are just people you have casually clicked ‘yes’ to on a friend request, without checking out who they are because you didn’t have the time … at the time. They may have requested friendship status with you simply because you have been auto-suggested by Facebook or because they have a causal acquaintance (i.e. a Facebook link) with one of the people you also have a Facebook link with. And you are now eternally linked, because you can’t bring yourself to unfriend them, or you simply forget to do so. And then others with even more tenuous links request friendship. And on it goes…. “

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/01/2010-year-we-fake-contact.html

As I commented on his post, I use Facebook carefully, and only for people I know. It’s a principle that has worked well on linkedIn for professional relationships. While I agree with what Steve says, I find Facebook very useful for keeping and regaining contact with people all over the world whom I have worked with or called friends in even a small way in the past. You don’t have to accept every person who wants to be friends with you (and you shouldn’t!).

Originally published on reachfurther.com