I go out all the time and meet new people. The next day I may remember their names or they will remember mine, and we will become facebook friends. You may stay in touch with these new friends through facebook for a few days, or maybe longer, however often times you never see them again, and do not stay close friends.
According to facebook, I have 892 friends. I was thinking about this earlier today and wondered how many of those people I actually am friends with still. I began looking through my friends list and realized that there are many people who have access to my information and photos that I do not even remember who they are, how I met them, or why I am friends with them.
I think that it is important to go through your friends list on facebook on at least a somewhat regular basis in order to update your privacy settings and to ensure that there are not people accessing your information that you would not want to be able to see it. The people who you may have met once or twice, but never became close friends with may not make the cut of people that you would want to be able to see your profile and information.
I know often times I get a friend request from somebody that I do not know. I may have mutual friends, but cant tell if I know them or not, so I will accept the request so that I can see if I know them or recognize them. I think caution should be used when doing this, because if the person that you are accepting is actually not a friend or acquaintance of you, they may be able to access information for a short time that you would not allow them to see. Be sure to delete these people from your account so that they cannot continue to see your profile and access your personal information.
It is my advice for everyone to go through your friends list, and delete those people who you do not know. At least adjust the privacy settings so that these people who made the cut of facebook friend, but who are not close friends, will not have access to all of your information.
I realized this too over the summer. I had like around 800 friends on facebook also and I would see status updates from people i did not even know. I proceeded to go through and delete anyone that I either was no long in contact with or was not sure who they were. I cut it down to 350 people! It was crazy to me to see just over time how many people you add or add you just due to meeting them in a class or over summer at a camp. This blog post is definitely good advice that everyone should time and abide by.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I got to Texas A&M I decided to go through my friends list and see who will make the cut of still being my friend on FB. I deleted about 200 people, some that I knew but was not interested to talk to and some that I had met once but never really became friends. I was left with about 300 friends, friends that I can trust at least with the amount of information I have on facebook. It is good to do a friend clean up every year or so.
ReplyDeleteI agree...I think sometimes we get so involved with social networking sites that we have a need to get as many "friends" as possible when in reality most of these people are strangers. I've recently adjusted my privacy settings just because companies and possible employers are looking at profiles. However, thanks to your post I think it's time I clean out my "friends" list :)
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