Further to my post yesterday, in which I bemoaned being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of differing opinions, I began to consider how this related to my lack of social interaction on the Web. I do not collect "friends" on-line, I think am friends with about 6 people, I have 4 followers on my Twitter account (and follow 3), I am notorious for my neglect of my Linkedin account. I have boundless respect for people who can maintain relationships (even if only virtual) with dozens or hundreds of people but I simply can't do it. Not least of the reasons is my previously discussed fear of accidentally offending someone I care about but, related to that, I just can't imagine that people want to know that I was stuck in a traffic jam for 45 minutes or that I am now 'friends' with some other complete stranger.
In a neat bit of synchronicity, one of my favourite tech bloggers yesterday posted and article about 'unfriending and unfollowing', here http://blog.louisgray.com/2010/11/unfriending-unfollowing-unsubscribing.html
Interesting article but I was a little horrified at the idea of reducing the number of 'friends' down to 1000 or so. I'm not sure I will have that many friends in my entire lifetime but I guess I consider it a matter of quality, not quantity.
Yes, I am known to regularly cull "friends" lists - especially on Facebook where 99% of my friends are people I actually know in the flesh. 1% includes a writer friend who is both lovely and interesting and someone with the exact same name as me (how could we not be friends?) :P
ReplyDeleteI use social media a lot as I am a recent transplant to Perth and my social group is spread over different parts of Australia and overseas. I simply cannot invite a few friends over for a few drinks and catchup on all the goss :) If you can, then you wouldn't use these services the way I do :)
ReplyDeleteHowever - I really worry about someone who claims to have over 1000 friends. I really dislike Facebook terminology.
Really, Saire? The same name as you? That's cool!There was a guy with the same name as me (he's dead now) and he is the reason I can never look for myself using Google :-)
ReplyDeleteI know what you're saying, Info. I have a couple of my old BrisBuddies on FB and it is a major part of why I continue to use it. Mind you, their complaints about the rain does get a bit old :-)