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I was listening to NPR yesterday and they had one of those fluff things they do from time to time where the radio personality did an feature on the dilemma she faced when her mother sent her a Facebook friend request.
On the one hand, she just couldn’t face having her one outlet for frustrations of family and work being subject to censorship (on her part) because of a fear she would say something to upset her mother. On the other hand she worred about denying her mom’s friend request; feeling that that would hurt her mom’s feelings.
She even posted on Facebook about it and got a lot of comments from her friends. It sounded like a good number of them encouraged her to friend her mom although there were the occasional ones who said not to.
The upshot was that she denied her mom’s request and kept her little Facebook page private. She concluded the piece with “Watching her name vanish from the screen, I felt both courageous and cowardly. But I knew I’d averted disaster. If I had accepted her friend request, my father’s couldn’t have been far behind.”
Well, I suppose she’s got a right to her opinion and all. I know that I recently requested “friend”-ing my 17 year old grandson, his 38 year old father and my 34 year old son. I have been friends for some time with my now 14 year old granddaughter and her 37 year old father as well as her mother (age withheld at the request of the parent 
)
I for one love having family as my friends. It is a nice way of keeping up with their day-to-day lives – something I feel totally apart from because of the physical distance between us as well as the fact that none of us are great about phoning each other unless there’s something going on.
Well, that would be the utopian outlook…but, like me, they don’t update their walls very often…I’m more likely to read someone’s opinion on the best fat burners out there than I am to read about my son’s promotion at work. It’s sad really. We have all these lovely social networks and modern conveniences and still manage to not communicate with each other. The 37 year old has done more writing on his wall since he’s been on vacation the past 2 weeks than he has in the past year 
Oh — and he’s posted pictures too! THAT’s a REAL plus!
Anyway, back to the NPR piece — in this piece she admitted to having 500 Facebook friends. FIVE HUNDRED FRIENDS! I don’t think I know anybody with that many friends — heck I can’t even think of 500 NAMES of people whose names I recocgnize! With that many Facebook friends, she must not have much criteria for denying anyone else who requests friending her.
So what’s your criteria for accepting friend requests on Facebook? Mine is pretty simple, they need to be someone I know and that I have some interest in their life.
And speaking of Facebook — who plays Farm Town? I’m thinking about writing a post on best practices for advancing in Farm Town – would you read it??
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I “friended” my sister, brother, and son on Facebook (at their request). My Mom doesn’t use a computer, so that’s not a problem. I know my daughter belongs to lots of sites that she would never want me to join, however.
.-= Patricia´s last blog ..Is Lying Ever Justified? =-.
Patricia — If my mother was on Facebook, I would definitely friend her! She uses the computer for different things — e-mail and surfing but she doesn’t know anything about social networks and I think she would get confused.
My situation is a little different from this one. I sent my Mom a friend request. She accepted and shortly afterward she stopped using FB. I am getting that ‘wanted’ feeling.
.-= Lyndi´s last blog ..WordPress: Possibilities are endless =-.
Lyndi I would love it if my mom were on Facebook, but I don’t think that’s her thing
She reads this blog as well as my other blogs and I talk to her weekly on the phone.
Unfortunately nowadays Facebook is becoming like Twitter.. anyone just want to “follow” you (or be your friends) without even knowing you personally. I normally rejects/ignores such offer if I don’t know that person on Facebook
.-= Michael Aulia´s last blog ..Redirect from HTTP to WWW =-.
Michael – I am using Facebook as more of a way to keep up with other people who share my hobby of showing Whippets and with my family. I do have 200 friends (didn’t realize I had that many until just a bit ago), but many are people I know from meeting at once-a-year functions like the Whippet Nationals and don’t really KNOW. Twitter on the other hand I use to follow people who do the same kind of work I do. I rarely write tweets.
Another social networking site I use is LinkedIn which I use for professional contacts and groups.
I’ve heard a lot about farm town but am too afraid of getting addicted to play it.
I have a limited profile so I can friend people like my mom and dad, yet limit them to what they see. So if I have a questionable photo album (not that I do, but “if”) they don’t have to know about it.
About friends. I have close to 300 of them (297 to be exact), and I could easily have 500 if I “friended” everyone I know. But then again living in 4 different countries and moving around a lot makes it a lot easier to make friends. I do delete friends from time to time.
My criteria for friending is: I have to know you, and I have to like you.
.-= Tellie´s last blog ..How to be a horrible roommmate =-.
Tellie – you sound like a friendly person. I tend to be more conservative in making friends. I seem to like my animals more
I don’t FB, primary reason my daughter does and no I would not want us connected, nor would she. We love each other, but she deserves her space. Not to mention I have too many blogs and other on line things anyway, really don’t need another.
She’s out of town, but we keep up via cell phone, I much prefer that.
Many people have hundreds of connections, followers on their blogs, on Twitter, or Blog Catalog; and for some I think it’s a game to see how many they can acquire.
To me the fun of the net is chatting with people you don’t know face to face, or work with etc. People I know, I perfer phone, or email.
.-= Sandy´s last blog ..Favorite Places =-.
Sandy — I guess that was the point of the NPR piece — you don’t HAVE to friend anyone you don’t want to. Or as was suggested by Tellie you can limit their access to your “stuff”. So I guess you could join FB and then never request or honor a request from your daughter.
Yes, I think that number increasing makes a big deal to some people. For me, it’s not the number but the quality of the folks that comprise it.