Facebook and Friends

This - CLICK HERE - is quite hilarious.

I like the way he tested his 'Facebook Friends' by setting his birthday on a totally different month from his actual birth date and changed the date 3 times over two to three weeks but he still received birthday wishes on all three dates and some even from the same people :D


Excerpt:
"..The Facebook birthday greeting has become a symbol of all that is irritating about the social network."


"..  your Facebook account suddenly chatters with exclamation-point-polluted birthday wishes. If you are a typical Facebook user, these greetings come mainly from your nonfriend friends—that group of Facebook "friends" who don't intersect with your actual friends."


"..The wishes have all the true sentiment of a Christmas card from your bank. The barrage of messages isn't unpleasant, exactly, but it's all too obvious that the greetings are programmed, canned, and impersonal, prompted by a Facebook alert." 




Do you put your actual birth date in Facebook?  Or do you even put your birth date in Facebook?


I don't.


Do you wish your friends Happy Birthday in Facebook?


I don't (most of the time).  I prefer calling, sending a personal email or phone messages for close friends.  


For not so close friends (most probably those that I do not have their mobile number) I may drop them a private FB message or slit in a comment riding on someone's else wish or post depending on my mood and how much I interact with the person in recent years.


Otherwise, I won't bother posting a wish on a wall cos I don't want to add on to the clutter.  I wonder if anyone goes through each and every single post.  Especially those with hundreds or thousands of friends?


Speaking of friends, how many FB friends do you have? And how many are real friends? How many do you actually interact with?  By 'interact' I meant - at the very least "like' on something if not comment..or at the very very least share items in FB game...lol.




As of today I have 191 friends.  I add new ones on and off but I also 'clean' the list once in a while.  I just removed someone who is a personal friend to me but he doesn't contribute anything in FB.  He is just there and yet not there..so I removed him from my list :P


I did a simple 'analysis' on my FB friends not too long ago.  Out of the all my "friends"..


..only 64 have somewhat active interactions with me ..defined as those whom I remember had Liked or Commented in any of my posts in the past year or so


..16 are relatives..mostly inactive except for my own siblings.


..6 are useful for Cityville (Lol), well we do know each other from work, school etc..but not much interaction apart from exchanging game items. Haha.


The rest, a huge chunk of 101 are totally inactive!  As in..I don't remember interacting with them in the recent years.  You know..how strange and yet common it is when we add some one new..and for that few days he or she will be actively asking questions and stuff ..


Where are you now?
What do you do?
Are you married? Oh..why not?
Where do you stay?
We should catch up?


May 2 in 10 will actually meet up in person. But after that meeting,  the frequency of meeting up or interacting regularly slowly reduces from once a day to as low as once or none a year.  Is this true for you too?  Or am I being too cynical? 




Oh well, the 101 are still listed as my friends simply because they are still pretty active in FB..just so I have more things to read in my news feed and some are interesting individuals that I like to 'keep in touch' with. (read : stalk / creep) Lol.... 




Another thing is, it's still nice to learn about..A's holiday trip Tokyo or what G had dinner with the hubby at Souled Out.




That's what friends are for  :D