Social Network Friends: Quality vs. Quantity
As little kids, quantity beats out quality at almost every turn. If faced with the choice between 10 toys or just one, the little ones will always buy in bulk. As adults, most of us understand that quality wins out every time. Would you rather have five minutes of intense pleasure or 15 minutes of generic sex? Exactly.
Then why do smart, educated, intelligent adults play the social networking numbers game? Including you! The reality is that many of us claim we have an abundance of friends or connections on these Websites. Yet, in real life, the older we get, the fewer friends we have.
If my profile on one of the major social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook) featured only 14 friends, I’d be viewed a loser. And 14 is pushing it, rounded out with cousins of acquaintances of friends.
Isn’t it time for some quality control?
Perhaps there should be a company that randomly contacts your “friends” to find out how much they really know about you. Stuff like your biggest fear; your college major; your mother’s middle name. You know, the things only a real friend would know.
The people who actually have the courage to show their face with only six pals are either silently judged (‘what a loser!’) or forced to set their profile to ‘private.’
For every person out there who doesn’t inflate their number of friends, I salute you. You’re choosing quality over quantity. And you’re exactly the type of person I want to be friends with. How about an add? 
[...] Social Network Friends: Quality vs. Quantity [...]
FreshNetworks Blog » Blog Archive » The nature of online friendships said this on June 3, 2008 6:36 pm