Facebook friend hordes become more exclusive

While it was once cool to collect friends on the social networking site, people are becoming more selective, researchers say.

A survey made public yesterday revealed some of our Facebook habits, including that although some of us have a network of thousands, Kiwis have an average of 124 friends on Facebook. One in 12 have more than 300.

Erika Pearson, from Otago University's school of media, film and communication, said people were becoming more discerning over who they allowed into their Facebook lives.

"When Facebook first went public it was `Oh my gosh, you've got 3000 friends' whereas now [it's] `You've got 3000 friends added – what's wrong with you? Why aren't you picking people out?"'

The UMR survey of 687 people found 70 per cent of respondents were connected with people they had not seen since school and more than 35 per cent were friends with someone they had never met.

But it was becoming more socially acceptable to decline friend requests, Dr Pearson said.

"You've only got a certain amount of time each day to maintain your friendships and so you don't want to waste it with random people."

This was helped by mobile technology, which enabled people to connect with friends online while in waiting rooms or elevators, rather than engaging with strangers.

The word "friend" was being "stretched beyond breaking point" and people were now using the term "Facebook friend" to distinguish between real-life chums and those who weren't, Dr Pearson said.

"A Facebook friend is someone you have on Facebook but you don't really talk to them."

Increased awareness of privacy issues and the realisation that future employers were researching online also led to a desire to keep a more low-key profile, Dr Pearson said.

The survey also found that on average, single people have more online friends (203) than the national average, as do those earning less than $30,000 a year (178).

Only 14 per cent of us are friends with our boss.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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