Facebook Friend Multiplier: Statistic from 0 - 1 which represents the degree of legitimate friendship between two Facebook users. For instance;
Mikal Smith (multiplier of 1) vs. Semi-Random Friender (multiplier of .3)If I were to waste hours assigning these multipliers to all of my 950 "friends", I would probably be saddened by how small my social life really is. That is not to say I don't enjoy influxes of friend requests, but I would argue that the allure of friend requests are being diluted by sheer volume.
Now, you may think a difference in this statistic is minuscule, but I ask you to look inside the mind of a Facebook Stalker! Whether they are looking at your pictures a little too intently, or subtly tracking your wall posts; these people perceive a Facebook friendship very differently than they should. To them, the message attached to a friend request is one of love and admiration! To you, maybe a fledgling love interest or experimental friendship might not be a big deal ... but to others it's a chance at REAL friendship! I warn you, be weary of these seemingly subtle differences in Facebook perceptions, because they can grow dangerously into strong differences of opinion; and angry "friends".
It's always been difficult to tell your friends from your enemies, but these days it's becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish friends from "friends"! My solution to you, my friend, is the multiplier! This simple statistic not only measures your degree of friendship, but suggests how vast the difference is in your perceptions of Facebook as a form of social media. I, for one, use a minimum Facebook multiplier of .4 in order to accept a new friend request.
I think I'm going to join you in that .4 multiplier.
ReplyDeleteFacebook quickly reminds me of when I joined MySpace and compulsively spent hours racking up thousands of "friends." It took me a couple of weeks (months?) to realize what a meaningless pursuit it all was. In the end, it just kept me from communicating with my real friends.