Tech Pet Peeve: Random Facebook Friending (AKA Power Friending)

I know I’m not alone here — we’ve all had those friend requests from people we don’t know — some who have a few friends in common, and others who are completely random. And although I feel this happens more to girls than guys (because of all the creepers out there), I’ve had my fair share as well. I noticed a particular increase when I started writing for MakeUseOf. So I changed my settings so that only friends of friends could add me, and only the rest could follow.

Here’s the pet peeve of mine though: When I get random invites from people who I have one, maaayyybe two friends in common with, and they send to message prior as to why they’re adding me. If it’s just random people doing this, I would just classify it as random friending, but whenever it’s on a more professional level and they have thousands of “friends”, I call it power friending.

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Facebook is actually an awesome network — I really like it. But I wish they would do a few things help connections be more personal.

Now I’ll admit — there was a time when I did this, but it was on accident.Upon looking at someone’s profile (not sure why I was looking at her’s again), I somehow added her and didn’t realize it. Don’t know how. It just happened. So whenever she confirmed the request, I got a notification and was quite surprised at what had happened and how it had happened. So I sent her a message…

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So. From now on, if there is someone you’d like to add… first look to see if they have the follow button. This allows you to see only what they make public, which depending on what their profile looks like, might be a lot.

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There are several people whom I follow that I know decently — meeting through Twitter or blogs, etc. and even Skyping with, but don’t know them well enough to want to be their friend.

Secondly, send a stinking message! It takes two seconds and is a great way to start the conversation with them instead of being a weird creeper person who just adds people and then never says “Hi! This is why I added you”. Honestly, if you don’t feel there’s a need to message someone and you don’t know them, don’t bother adding them either. Now, if you know someone fairly well, you don’t need to send a message, however if it’s been a while since you talked… why not send one?

In addition to all of this, this is even more important on a professional level. If you’re representing your business, brand or even just yourself, don’t do this. In fact, don’t do a lot of things, but this is certainly one of the big ones.

—End of rant—

Question: What is Facebook hoping to accomplish with “highlighed” posts? Seriously though…

Previously to Facebook’s recent Timeline update, highlighting a post meant that it would stand out — taking up the whole page horizontally — which quickly would grab your friends’ attention.

But now, there’s just a blue ribbon…

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But maybe that’s just my view right? Perhaps whenever you actually see it from the public’s or a friend’s view it’ll be different…

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Well… I don’t see how that’s highlighted… maybe I’m doing something wrong. So I went to Facebook’s help center and “asked”, Facebook, how do I star a post and what does starring a post do?

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Hmm… well that wasn’t very helpful. Way to go into depth on that one Facebook.

So now I have honestly no idea what “highlighting” does for posts. Perhaps Facebook will launch a feature in the future that allows you to click Highlighted in the Timeline and view all of that person’s highlights in their feed. That wouldn’t be a bad feature. But right now… it doesn’t do anything on my friends’ and followers’ end and only puts a little blue ribbon on my end.

Facebook, perhaps you should give yourself a gold star for creating such a fantastic and useful feature… [sarcasm]

Do you have any insight on this?

Now Facebook is showing stuff in my News Feed about things I like from pages I haven’t “liked”. I understand what they’re trying to do — showing me relevant info and all… but that’s not what’s happening.  What’s happening is we’re about to be bombarded by advertisements all over Facebook, not just on the sides like the ol’ times. My advice is that you watch what you “like” and keep up on telling Facebook what you DON’T want to see, otherwise they’ll take advantage of your lack of participation and you’ll never see your own friends’ posts But that’s just my prediction. And again, I like change — it’s what technology is all about — but I’m not so sure I like the direction that Facebook is going.
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Now Facebook is showing stuff in my News Feed about things I like from pages I haven’t “liked”. I understand what they’re trying to do — showing me relevant info and all… but that’s not what’s happening. 

What’s happening is we’re about to be bombarded by advertisements all over Facebook, not just on the sides like the ol’ times.

My advice is that you watch what you “like” and keep up on telling Facebook what you DON’T want to see, otherwise they’ll take advantage of your lack of participation and you’ll never see your own friends’ posts

But that’s just my prediction. And again, I like change — it’s what technology is all about — but I’m not so sure I like the direction that Facebook is going.

Facebook suggests who you should poke now? Pokes are already pointless. I honestly don’t get the purpose. For a social network, it’s probably the most socially awkward feature. Just picture… walking up to someone that you know, but haven’t talked to in a year, poking them and then walking away waiting for them to poke you back. Wow… exciting. So is Facebook just running out of ideas of things to “suggest” to us now?
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Facebook suggests who you should poke now? Pokes are already pointless. I honestly don’t get the purpose. For a social network, it’s probably the most socially awkward feature.

Just picture… walking up to someone that you know, but haven’t talked to in a year, poking them and then walking away waiting for them to poke you back.

Wow… exciting. So is Facebook just running out of ideas of things to “suggest” to us now?

Alright, so I really needed to see this and pretty much found it immediately after posting my Thought of the Day today.Thanks to Josh Shipp for posting this.It definitely helped reinforce my decision to take the high road and say nothing instead of making some comeback which won’t prove anything except immaturity. So instead of doing that I decided to make the best of it, accept what happened and move on. Sure it’s hard and I have this “pitting out” feeling in my chest, but dwelling on it will only make it worse. Note: Click the image for the full screen view. 
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Alright, so I really needed to see this and pretty much found it immediately after posting my Thought of the Day today.

Thanks to Josh Shipp for posting this.

It definitely helped reinforce my decision to take the high road and say nothing instead of making some comeback which won’t prove anything except immaturity. So instead of doing that I decided to make the best of it, accept what happened and move on. Sure it’s hard and I have this “pitting out” feeling in my chest, but dwelling on it will only make it worse.


Note: Click the image for the full screen view. 

Source: viruscomix.com

Employers Requesting Job Applicants' Facebook Account Information — Facebook Takes Action

This is so stupid on so many levels for employers to require job applicants and employees to give them access to their accounts!

  1. Facebook is a huge company. Once they get word of what you’re doing, I doubt you’ll be prepared to go up against them.
     
  2. It obviously is a turnoff and the worst way to attract quality employees. The only ones you’ll get are the ones dumb enough to not turn around and walk out that door. And even if you get a good one, they’ll see you’re an obvious control freak.
     
  3. Morals. Enough said.

Wow! Didn’t See THAT Coming…

This is a prime example of how people completely overreact without using their head and just assuming that, basically, people are out ‘hatin’ on ‘em. What a great attitude to have… that type of attitude will get you nowhere in life.

But anyways, let me explain this photo. This is not a friend of mine, but a friend of a friend, who’s photo I had commented on. Facebook notified me of this girl’s comment, so I thought I’d help. Apparently, she thought my remark was “F****ng rude” …which caught me quite off guard to say the least!

I reread my comment trying to think of how it might come across as “rude”, I didn’t get anywhere. So I decided to give her my opinion because apparently she already thought I was rude so how much worse could it get? I guess we’ll see…

If she does comment, I’m predicting two reactions and neither of them are probably going to be positive, despite my efforts. She either…

  1. Get angry due to embarrassment, realizing she was an idiot for jumping to such drastic conclusions without even considering any other outcome.

    OR

  2. Just call me rude again.

Neither would surprise me… and maybe even both will happen. This really is only the tip of the iceberg. I suppose there is a problem, like I pointed out in my reply to her, that people can adhere any “tone” they want to text when reading it.

For example, if I want a writer to sound dumb while reading their content, I can place that tone in my head while reading it and no matter how intelligent they might be or how thought out the content was, because of my perception, the premise(s) and conclusion of the content was “dumb” based on my views.

This is one reason I refuse to ever have serious conversations where conflict could result over chat: texting, email, IM, etc. At the very least: a phone call. Even better: a video call so they can also see facial expressions… And best yet: in person.

But honestly, we as a whole (and I’m talking about everyone — including myself), just jump to WAY to many conclusions without thinking things out. Whether it’s a huge topic or just something small like this. So I thought I’d point this out and use it as an example because it really is sad that people are like this and so insensitive to others. I honestly feel that how we think of ourselves is out we view others. If we dislike ourselves, we may feel that others are trying to condemn or antagonize us… thus interpreting what they say as that too even if they mean well and are just trying to help in some way.

Just my thoughts.

I really like Facebook’s new photo viewer. I think it’s a great step in the right direction. It definitely reminds me of Google+, but that’s a good thing.However, I am worried a bit that Facebook is starting to “copy” some of Google+’s mannerisms, but hopefully that doesn’t become the case because they both need to continue to compete otherwise there won’t be any growth.There are still a ton of other things Facebook needs to change and improve on. Hopefully these come soon. 
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I really like Facebook’s new photo viewer. I think it’s a great step in the right direction. It definitely reminds me of Google+, but that’s a good thing.

However, I am worried a bit that Facebook is starting to “copy” some of Google+’s mannerisms, but hopefully that doesn’t become the case because they both need to continue to compete otherwise there won’t be any growth.

There are still a ton of other things Facebook needs to change and improve on. Hopefully these come soon. 

Reply: I do too. And like I said to someone else, how can the world largest social networks have such a significant problem?! I mean if you think about it… without reliable notifications, interacting on Facebook is practically useless.

aprilsarahdesign answered your question: Thought of the Day: Facebook, you are so helpful. Not. Why do you inconstantly inform me of notifications?

I know I have issues with it between using my iPhone and Rockmelt. Things never seem to always hook up correctly.

Thought of the Day: Facebook, you are so helpful. Not. Why do you inconsistently inform me of notifications?

Is anyone else having this problem? 

Someone will comment on a post or status of yours, or post something on your wall and you won’t ever get notified of it. You end up seeing it in the Newsfeed or on your wall when you randomly look at it for no reason.



UPDATE: Just realized I spelled “inconsistently”, “inconsitantly”… that’s not even close. Sorry about the spelling error.

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