Is 500 Too Many Friends? Now Ensues the Conversation

An excellent conversation is brewing on my Facebook "Consumer-Generated Media" group around this the very issue of whether  I've yet to reach the "tipping" point of too many friends. I posted the question moments after I officially reached the 500 friend mark.  So far over fifteen well-friended "friends" have left thoughtful commentary, and it's worth a good read. Dave Evans says "it doesn't matter," while Bob Troia notes (correctly, I think) that "the flaw with Facebook is that they refer to everyone as "friends" when in fact we are "connections". Suzanna Stokes of South Africa notes: ""friends" is a poor description of the networking tool that facebook offers," while Cathy Yingling on Indianapolis says "more the merrier."  Ann Michael says she "feels my pain and shares (my) questions,"  while colleague Stephen Tompkins says I just need to get more efficient sub-categorizing my friends. What do you think?

Comments

[Kevin Dugan]

Yeah, it's the f-word more than anything. No one brings this up with LinkedIn unless they think people are collecting contacts for the sake of collecting.

I did a video on facebook friends awhile back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP3bt_Xu9ys

Some other thoughts on this are emerging: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/02/the-problem-of-too-many-online-friends.html

[Tom Asacker]

"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day." - Dalai Lama

[Patrick]

Often times a friend on Facebook is actually quite the opposite. I'll frequently accept or request a 'friending' of a peer i really am not fond of, only to use their profile as a way of keeping tabs on how much better my life is without actually having to communicate with the individual. There, I said it. I'm not ashamed. I don't think i'm alone.

My real 'friends' are those i see in person, speak with on the phone, email, or those whose walls I post on more than just their birthday.