You talked to somebody for six minutes after your theater class? FRIEND.
Your roommate's boy/girlfriend? FRIEND.
The person with whom you had a drunken conversation at that one party that one time? FRIEND.
No. These people are not your "friends", and they're probably not even acquaintances. They're borderline strangers. Next time you're about to approve a friend request for someone you've known for less than a week, ask yourself this question: Would you tell this person all of the things that you have posted on your Facebook profile in real life? Would you tell them who all of the members of your family are? Would you tell them about that article you just read, and (OMG) how good it was? Would you want them to see the vengeful and manipulative comment your mom left on your status? Would you want them to see how gross you looked at the beach that one day? Would you tell them about each and every person you've ever dated? Because they can know about all of this (and more) about 20 minutes after you click "accept."
Another thing that Facebook has changed is our inability to let friendships die. Five years ago, if you had a friend that you didn't really want to be friends with anymore, you weren't friends with them anymore. And that was just fine! What are the chances that you'll run into the girl you had a crush on in seventh grade? And, if you do, how much fun would it be to catch up with them? Wouldn't that be so much fun? I'm getting excited just thinking about it! Ever further, if you found out that they'd turned out to be some degenerate drug addict, it wouldn't matter because you could choose not to see them ever again!
With Facebook, that isn't possible. People that "we used to know" don't exist, because we still know everybody! We know what everybody has been up to without even having to ask! I'm not saying that this can't be really convenient, because it certainly can. However, it's really only convenient if you actually want to know what everybody's been doing since high school. If you don't actually care about half the things you have to read on your news feed (and I know I don't), then it's essentially the same as people announcing their business at random, completely unsolicited. What if that happened in real life? What if you were sitting in class trying to listen to your friend talk about something that genuinely interests you, and everybody started yelling out what's on their minds? This is what using social networking sites is like for me, and I am just as annoyed with it as I would be if people started yelling out how much they LOOOOOOOOOOVE THEIR BOYFRIENDDDDD(!!!11) every ten minutes.
I'm not buying into it anymore. I'm okay with denying requests, deleting photos, and letting some friendships die. If playing the social networking game means granting every person I meet unrestricted access to the details of my life, then I quit.
