danah boyd breaks down Friendship on the social networking sites MySpace and Friendster. While I don’t use either—in fact I’ve never even heard of Friendster—most, if not all, of her list of the 13 most common reasons for Friendship apply to Facebook. There is certainly a difference between real life friends and Facebook friends. One might have 15-20 friends that they might actually call up on the phone and initiate plans with. Online, however, one might have those same 15-20 friends, plus an additional, say, 600 friends.
Me, personally, I have 554 Facebook friends as of now, with at least two pending friend requests; 204 of those belonging to the Indiana University network. I just looked up one girl I’m friends with who has 1,077 friends, 672 from IU. Very few people are limiting their friend lists to just people they know very well, but of my 204 IU friends, I’m sure that 95% of those I would, at minimum, say hello to or start a conversation with should I cross paths with them. For me, I don’t just add everyone I meet. I’m not “that guy” who meets someone and 20 minutes later shoots them a friend request. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people who I’m not more than acquaintances with, but judging by my 204 versus the 672, I also don’t get too carried away.
So who are my friends? Actual friends, as mentioned above, my two siblings and some cousins, as well as acquaintances. There are lots of people from my high school and IU that would fall under an “in-between” type: not great “actual” friends, but definitely more than acquaintances. I am also friends with some people I may have worked with, and friends from my many years playing tennis and attending religious school. There is also one kid, for example, that was one of my sports editors at the Indiana Daily Student. I didn’t know him that well, plus he graduated, so the chances of me ever talking to him again are slim to none. I don’t think that I will actually go as far as defriending him, however, but you never know haha.
The biggest category of people I have yet to mention are athletes, which is an interesting category. Many people like to add their favorite college basketball and football players because it is either cool to be “friends” with them, or simply so they can see their photographs and see what other things they may be up to. I am from Cincinnati and I’m an absolutely huge Bearcats fan. Of my 53 University of Cincinnati Facebook friends, 17 of them are current or former UC basketball or football players (plus the UC Bearcat mascot who sends out sporting event invites which is pretty cool). I’ve only met a couple of them, but I don’t know them personally. Likewise, I am “friends” with most of IU’s basketball players from my two years here on campus, plus a handful of football players. Once again, I don’t know them, but it is still cool to be friends with them. Just ask the majority of (suspended) IU quarterback Kellen Lewis’ 1,907 IU friends. Or most of Jordan Crawford’s 867 IU Facebook friends.
There are some exceptions for me, however, being the former Men’s Tennis reporter and current basketball recruiting reporter for the IDS. I knew all of last year’s and most of this year’s tennis squad from the numerous interviews I had with them (not to mention I personally knew one player from home), so adding some of them wasn’t too random. I have also added 10 or more high school basketball stars that have considered or are currently looking at IU. It is often the best way of setting up a potential phone interview for the ones that have Facebook, and a few instances it has actually worked. In fact, the No. 9-ranked junior in high school is very interested in coming to IU and I just shot him a request this afternoon before coming to the library to work on this, among other assignments.
Basically, I have 554 Facebook friends to date, and with the exception of most of the athletes, they are each friends of mine to varying degrees--even if it is a friend of a friend who I have never met in person. The significance of that is not that I am really cool or popular—you make the call on that one—but rather that I have this huge online network of people whom I have access to. Whether it is making plans with one of them, asking a homework question, requesting an interview, or simply viewing one’s recently posted photographs, I am connected to all of these people. Sure, many of the athletes have random kids like me on a limited profile, but that does not mean they aren’t checking on their Facebook friends either. In fact, Armon Bassett (currently kicked off the IU basketball team) saw me last November or December and said, “aren’t you one of my Facebook friends?” Yes, and as of now, so are 1,746 others on his prep school network’s account (I never bothered requesting him on his IU account). Friends, or just “friends,” they’re basically all the same to me on Facebook.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment