Dubai Consumer Mirror

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Few Facebook Facts

I lately gave my Facebook profile an overhaul. Cleaned some useless Apps, deleted all emails and removed many "friends" I did not know from my list.

That revealed some interesting statistics about my Facebook friends list. Here is what I found out:

- Two are not with us anymore - both passed away earlier this year.
- Three ex-girlfriends - talk about awkwaaaard
- Five turned out to be gay: three male, two female - I didn't know anything about that before Facebook. But I am OK with that
- One is an exhibitionist.
- Five are very radical political activists. Some of their posts could get me into trouble.
- About 6 or 7 friends who turned from being totally westernized, into extremely conservative, rightwing religious.
- About a dozen I honestly, truly, do not remember anything about. But somehow they remember every detail of our one-time-only-met-via-common-friend-encounter-10-years ago.
- Another dozen who, though on my list, totally ignore me when we pass by each other at the mall or somewhere. Here is a question: If you have no plans to say hi to me in real life, why the heck did they invite me to your FB?
- About 3 or 4 friends who were never ever nice to me back in college, work...etc. And they still are – I don't know why am I keeping them.

Maybe I should give my friends list another sweep... what do you think?

Labels:

posted by moryarti at 4/12/2008 07:01:00 PM

23 Comments:

  • Another dozen who, though on my list, totally ignore me when we pass by each other at the mall or somewhere. Here is a question: If you have no plans to say hi to me in real life, why the heck did they invite me to your FB--->
    so they'd see your photos and decide whose life looks more interesting!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at April 12, 2008 at 8:25 PM  

  • You did a good job.
    Also it is strange to find unknow person has added someone in their friend list.
    It is strange to see someone has hundreds of friends in his list.

    By Blogger Mona, at April 12, 2008 at 8:42 PM  

  • Lol@Farah... yeah they didn't find anything interesting :)

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 12, 2008 at 8:50 PM  

  • Mona - thanks for dropping by.. I totally ignore people i don't know. Out of courtesy, i email them back asking if we've ever met before. Because i am bad with faces. When they say they just found me "intersting" and would like to "know me" - thats when i click the IGNORE botton.

    I just read your encounter with Fairuz. I would be careful with these people. Some are really dodgy. Just keep ignoring them and they will go away.

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 12, 2008 at 8:52 PM  

  • LoL Mo; yup you should do several sweeps. Thing is there are some people I didn't put on limited profile out of courtesy but then I go to their page and I just see their profile photos. What am I to do, print them or set them as wallpaper?

    It's great to clean up phonebooks and RSS feeds and FB people every once in a while. Less clutter, less maintenance, less headache, and why should you bother anyway about people who wouldn't even wish you a happy Bday once a year while they comment daily/hourly/religiously on other people's stuff.

    Ironically, the word verification was "rialize". Haha

    By Blogger KJ, at April 13, 2008 at 7:09 AM  

  • You are completely right ... I mean at first I was very excited about this facebook thing but now I find my self really stuck into this shit and I cant get out ... I just can't.

    I have "friends" whom I've never liked .. ppl who I just wanted to forget .. A girl who I was hitting on her like 4 years ago .. a stupid couple of ppl who I do not even know, set of people who I have nothing in common with them ...
    I mean this is fucken weird .. I hate it but I cant get out of it .. I just cant.

    OMG .. there is this guy who hates me and I really hate the shit out of him and yet .. we are facebook friends ... and guess what .. its not only me .. everybody else has similar awkward situation on facebook. any way glad to know that Im not alone in this shit

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at April 13, 2008 at 8:43 AM  

  • lol@anon... same thing happened to me with this guy who i can't stand at work :)

    I should add that to my list

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 13, 2008 at 7:57 PM  

  • KJ - very true re the birthday wishes thing..

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 13, 2008 at 7:59 PM  

  • nice one Mori.. yet another reason to NOT join FACISTbook :)

    good to read you.

    By Blogger BuJ, at April 13, 2008 at 10:58 PM  

  • So many facebookers strive for huge friend lists. I never add anyone I don't know, but I am always surprised at the people who try to get away with it.

    By Blogger Susan , at April 18, 2008 at 8:52 PM  

  • I have to say, favebook has its advantages, as long as you have the right "faces" in it :)

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 19, 2008 at 7:26 AM  

  • Thanks Cariogal, hope u enjoyed ur trip to Hawaii ;)

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 19, 2008 at 7:27 AM  

  • Thanks, Mori. Yeah...aside from my husband's terrible sunburn and my sprained ankle it's been great!

    By Blogger Susan , at April 19, 2008 at 7:35 AM  

  • I don't really 'get' Facebook. I'm on it, and you're one of my friends, but as far as I can see it's just a huge data-gathering operation: FB has all your contact details, they can see what you're interested in and who you're linked to. It's an advertiser's/marketer's dream. But I don't really like it. And all those stoopid applications? Thank you, but no.

    Good to see you posting again Mory.

    By Blogger Keef, at April 20, 2008 at 1:39 AM  

  • Thanks Keef... :)

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 20, 2008 at 7:34 PM  

  • Totally true what you have mention.
    I got friends from school who hated me for being the nice girl.
    They were mean to me until i left school,now they want to renew their friendship with me through facebook to know my news off course and how well i am doing.
    I dont believe you can have 200 sincere friends in this world,just one or two.

    Rest are all hypocrites.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at April 21, 2008 at 2:36 PM  

  • oh Keefie.. my sentiments exactly! which is why me and Facebook lead separate lives!!!

    After a few months' silence, one of my friends called me and had an angry tone in her voice. She complained why I did not congratulate her on coming back from travels to x, y, and z... and I said "sorry I didn't realise you were away" then the reply was:

    "I invited you to facebook and I showed my status online"

    aggggh...one thing doesn't lead to another!

    By Blogger BuJ, at April 23, 2008 at 4:05 PM  

  • lol@Buj...

    I had a similer situation as well. And today, Facebook launched the chat application - so you have no excuse :)

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 23, 2008 at 5:28 PM  

  • Ha, ha.. great post. really true. Facebook is kind of a tabloid magazine when u can quickly get all the hot news of whats-going-on in the life of people "you know" ...u ve got a daily updates of everything :). The only differents is that people make the information public by by their own, so no need for paparazzi purchasing them :P.. who get married u ve there, who had become singel u ve there, who get a new job, who was on a bloody expensive holidays and other useless blah blah. I actually went further and delated my FB profile...

    By Blogger Umm Sakinah, at April 23, 2008 at 5:43 PM  

  • That thing about deceased friends - it is a real dilemma. I used to have the phone number of someone who had died in my mobile. I could never bring myself to delete it, even though they were quite a distant acquaintance. Eventually I changed sim cards and the number vanished with the old sim card.

    But what does one do in these circumstances? It just seems awful to have to "delete" people after they die. I think MySpace gives a profile a special deceased status if death is proven, perhaps Facebook should be able to have deceased friends tucked away in a quiet "late friends and family" list.

    It is also a sad reminder to us all not to forget to make some kind of list of internet accounts and passwords, and leave a copy with a trusted friend or legal representative, so that they can at least notify online friends if we die. Think of all the people you know online that may have no connection to your physical friends and family.

    By Blogger secretdubai, at April 25, 2008 at 12:08 AM  

  • Sakinah - thanks for dropping by my friend. I totally agree - somepoeple use FB as a showcase to what they do/have/eat/drink/wear..etc :)

    I guess it feeds some alter-ego persona somewhere deep :)

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 25, 2008 at 7:57 AM  

  • SD - I like this idea of 'late friends', Most likely Myspace has it because it has been around way before FB.

    its good to see you here old friend. How is it down there? ;)

    By Blogger moryarti, at April 25, 2008 at 8:02 AM  

  • ah, very interesting point from SD.. actually i had a few of these things happen to me unfortunately..

    i had a distant friend from uni die from a car accident a few yrs ago.. we were not very close so i deleted his number from my phone after a few months (i think i changed phones and had to update records). part of the reason why is that i was not in touch with any of his friends or his family.. thus the connection was unfortunately severed.

    however on the other hand one of my close friends died 2 yrs ago.. and i haven't deleted anything.. not even e-mail contacts.. but then again i know her family etc.. and we are closer after her untimely death.

    "horses for courses" is how the saying goes i guess.

    Good health to all!

    By Blogger BuJ, at April 25, 2008 at 9:58 AM  

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