Facebook "Friends"

Just a side note, I have decided that I have graduated to using capital letters now.

Yesterday was my birthday, which made a very convenient opportunity to find out who my "real" facebook friends are. Actually, just an oppurtunity to see who uses facebook enough to know that it was my birthday, or those who just "randomly" happened to check their facebook and see that it was my birthday.

The point is, for the past several weeks I have been thinking about what a weird forum facebook is. The political discussions aside, facebook is still weird.

Don't get me wrong. I love facebook. I love being able to keep up with my friends and acquaintances from years and years ago. Most of them aren't good friends, which means that I would not email or call them after 4-5 years of not hearing from them. But, with facebook, all you have to do is see that their status has been updated "I'm getting married!" "Isn't my son cute"...etc, etc. and you can keep up with their life. And at least feel like you have friends.

But sometimes, I think that facebook friends go a little too far. My facebook friends now number in the 300's--which wouldn't be a problem except my facebook page is always filled with random people's status updates. And I think to myself, "Who is this person? Oh...yea, she was in one of my classes 4 years ago...I think." And then, I have lived in several different countries, so I sometimes get posts-posts, not just status updates-in different languages and from people that I frankly don't remember.

And then there is the add friend application. When someone adds you as a friend and you don't recognize them, what do you do? What if they really are waiting and expecting to be your friend but you don't recognize the picture of their face covered with paint or their very adorable child? How lame does it look when you don't "friend" them because you don't remember who they are? But what if they really don't know you but think they do? Then you get those annoying status updates and eternal invites to join facebook farm.

No, thanks. Facebook is just not my primary farm forum.

So lately, I have been thinking that I need to clean out my facebook friends. If I don't recognize them, "unfriend."

But then I just might not have any friends at all...