How long will Facebook last?

[Brian]

I don't use Facebook, but I created a fake account just to see what it was all about and I've gotten just under a dozen friend requests.

Possibly because no one knows this fake person? You don't just create a page and friends magically appear. You find the people you really know and then meet the people they know through them. You join groups which appeal to you and make friends through mutual interests. Making friends is not a passive activity, even IRL.

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ I was surprised that I got any requests given that the profile is for a fake person. I just wanted to check out the features, which I could only do by signing up. I wasn't expecting any requests. I didn't even put down an extensive profile. All I registered was I a name and a birthdate, the bare minimum.

 

[Brian]

Ah, I thought you were complaining about the few requests. Well, as with any social medium, there will be spammers or people seeking to market themselves or their wares. (For me, it's most often DJ's. Everybody and their grandmother is a DJ these days, it seems.) I generally ignore any friend request where we don't have friends in common, or some other explanation provided with the request.

With FB, you also occasionally run into people who seem to measure their self-worth by the number of "friends" they have. In my circle, we call them "friend collectors".

 

[BlobVanDam]

^ I was surprised that I got any requests given that the profile is for a fake person. I just wanted to check out the features, which I could only do by signing up. I wasn't expecting any requests. I didn't even put down an extensive profile. All I registered was I a name and a birthdate, the bare minimum.

I've gotten a bit of this too, although no more than you have, and I've had my account for a few years. I do have a legit account, but my account settings mean that all that anyone can see is my name and the small profile picture.
Some have been obvious spammers, but others just seem like the kind of people who desperately want to pad up their friends list with random people. I'll never understand these people. I only add/accept people I actually know, not friends of friends for the sake of it.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Definitely true, though I tend to go the other way and not try to read too much into the way people type something. Especially in a forum like this where we have a lot of people who aren't native English speakers/writers. A direct insult is a lot easier to spot, though!

Very true. What always amazes me is the different people you meet on the internet, and I think that it's come a long way into actually teaching people who don't have English as their native tongue. I've met a lot of non-English speakers who speak better than those who do! I don't think it's at all surprising that people will run into misunderstandings giving that, though. Myself, I'm bilingual and I was actually taught in French school, being a French-Canadian, however I've come out of practice with English taking over. You'd never be able to tell otherwise. I enjoy meeting people from all over.

Anyhow, as for Facebook, I've only just recently started using it and even then I don't use it very much. Mostly to stay in contact with family and close friends.

 

[Winterwind]

If Facebook disappeared tomorrow it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. I registered an account there only to keep in touch with a few friends that prefer it. I'd far prefer chatting with my overseas friends via an IM like MSN. But... those friends rarely if ever use MSN Messenger anymore. Nope. It's all Facebook. Bastards! I caved in to peer pressure!

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I still have yet to sign up. My social network days ended with Myspace.

 

[Sean Aaron]

If Facebook disappeared tomorrow it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

For the most part I agree, but it would be annoying to go back to manually uploading photos to Flickr and then spamming my relatives. The iPhoto integration with the Facebook API is a dream: I upload and then click one button and I'm done (well, unless I'm going to caption the new album in FB)!