The Mad Scramble

So I log onto Facebook today, and I see, on my friends' walls, a list of who added who as a friend, and who has this many friends, et cetera. This is that same thing I see every time I log onto my home page. Why is it that people must have everyone on Facebook as their friends? 97% of the time I personally only add people I've met before and talked to more than once. I think that should be enough for everyone. I liken the mad scramble for friends to the Space Race of the '50s and '60s. "Come on, let's go ask every single random person on Facebook to be our friend." "Yeah, we'll have a million of 'em!" "I personally have three billion, four hundred twenty million, nine hundred and forty-two thousand and sixty-eight!" "Oh yeah? Well I have...three billion, four hundred twenty million, nine hundred and forty-two thousand and sixty...nine!"

Wow. That's slightly lame. Maybe I'm overreacting a little bit. But come on, people! For those of you on Facebook: How many of your Facebook "friends" are really your friends? Or even acquaintances of yours? One does not have four hundred friends, though he may easily have that many acquaintances. But I have come across people with four thousand "friends". Four thousand! One usually has between ten and twenty-five real friends that one hangs out with all the time, and an even less amount of people one knows intimately outside one's immediate family. I know some people that add friends of their friends as their friends. Have they even met those people? Most of the time, they have not.

For all of you who are new to Facebook, don't go overboard. Just add the people you talk to every week, or at least once a month. Oh, and your relatives. They won't forgive you if you don't add them, even an aunt you've never met. That's all I have to say. Don't like it? Check the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.