I don’t totally agree with you about mixing personal and business interests on Facebook, but that’s okay. Each of us can use the site in whatever way makes us happiest.

As far as massive friends lists are concerned, I think Aristotle summed it up very well when he wrote, “He who has many friends, has none.”

Friends are rare finds and are worth much more than gems.

I think we dilute the meaning of the word when it is applied so indiscriminately on the social networking sites.

Friendship requires a certain amount of effort, nurturing, and interaction, or it dies like a neglected houseplant.

Perhaps it would be better if they had named them “contact lists” or something similar.

For myself, I don’t mind mixing my business and personal life, since they are so intertwined anyway. Still, there are times when I don’t like one interfering with the other. I’ve found a mix that works well for me.

Last year, when Mom died, Facebook was a great place to upload photos and share memories. That brought several of my family to Facebook and we’ve been able to keep in touch a bit better since then.

Act on your dream!

JD

I *cringe* anytime I see people with thousands of friends (and I think FB limits them to a max of 5000) – Really can you be that close to thousands of people?!?!

Yes, I think FB has its place for internet marketing – but I do believe your personal page should be kept, well – personal

Cheers!

I’m going to disagree with you on this.

Facebook is a social networking site owned and controlled by a private company, not a government institution or some kind of conspiracy.

I don’t know if it is true, or not, that a Facebook profile can’t be deleted. I don’t want to delete mine so I’m not going to test it to see if it’s true or not.

Have you tried?

If you don’t want to be a member at Facebook, that’s certainly your decision and right, but I don’t think there is any reason for fear-mongering.

Act on your dream!

JD

I think that Facebook becomes useful as you find others who share the same interests you do, and not just superficially. The more I spend time on Facebook, the more I get out of it, as long as I exercise some common sense.

I ignore almost all group and application invitations, even from close friends, because the more groups you join, the more applications you add, the more people whose friend requests you accept, the more you get side-tracked from your original purpose.

My main purpose in using Facebook is to keep up with what my friends and family are doing.

That’s why segmenting my friends into separate lists has greatly increased my enjoyment of Facebook over the last week or so. Learning how to hide all the Mafia Wars updates and similar things has done the same thing.

I don’t mind if my friends and family love Mafia Wars and want to spend their time playing it. Good for them, if they enjoy it. Since I don’t, I don’t want to be bothered by it. Hiding those updates has made my Facebook experience more enjoyable, without diminishing their enjoyment, as far as I know.

As I get older, I want to stay in touch with my family more, and many of them are on Facebook now. I enjoy the photos they uploads, the glimpses into their daily life, and lots of other things they share.

The same is true for my close friends.

This is not true for some of the other people I friended, just because they were Squidoo lensmasters, bloggers, marketers, people I knew from the traffic exchanges, and so forth. It seems that the narrow interest I shared was not enough to put up with some of the other things they do that I don’t like. I try not to make a big deal of it. I’m just quietly unfriending a few people here and there and I’m much less likely to accept a friend request from someone I don’t really know than I used to be.

I’ve renewed friendships with people I lost touch with over 20 years ago on Facebook and I really don’t know how that would have happened elsewhere.

Act on your dream!

JD

I also never used facebook much. I created my account and went there like 3 times but never found it that interesting.

I like your post about making segmented list. I will try it again sometime.

Let us know how it shapes up for you in long term or if you see more interesting things in facebook.
.-= Ravi Kuwadia´s last blog ..Backlinking Strategies that Work =-.

Welcome to our discussions and thanks for your comment.

I know what you mean about people who try to get massive friend and/or follower lists. I don’t understand it, but some people just think more is better.

I only have about 300 “friends” on Facebook and I’ll probably drop about a third of them.

I’m following about 1,600 people on Twitter and have plans to stop following several hundred of them.

I’m there for exchanging information and talking with my real friends, and interacting with too many people lowers the quality of what I really enjoy doing.

Act on your dream!

JD

I don’t really know what to tell you.

If it were me facing that decision, I would probably keep my existing identity on Facebook and just drop everyone you don’t really know or enjoy talking to.

That’s what I’m going to do.

If you set up a new identity, then you’ll lose all the value of any links and bookmarks that your real friends may have created.

For a long time, I accepted friend requests from anyone who mentioned Squidoo, CafePress, and some of the traffic exchanges. Now, I find that we may share some common interests, but not enough to remain “friends.”

Yesterday, my daughter told me another way to enjoy Facebook more and now I have hidden all those Mafia Wars and similar posts. It’s easy to do. Just hover your mouse over the entry and click on the “Hide” link in the top right corner. You can choose to hide the person or the application. After hiding several applications in which I have no interest, it makes what is left more worth reading.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

I agree. Facebook is confusing and there is so much there that I’m really not interested in — especially all the quizzes, polls, and anything to do with Mafia Wars.

But, the more I use it, the better I like it for keeping up with some close friends and relatives.

I’m still not getting much from it for my business, but that’s okay. Even hermits like me need to socialize now and then.

Act on your dream!

JD

Solomon Huey
.-= Solomon Huey´s last blog ..Get YOUR Voice Heard! =-.