Comments on: Facebook a wealth of data for researchers

By: Sandy Fox

Sandy Fox — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:18:04 +0000

Very interesting point about the number of friends someone has on Facebook. I wonder if their is a point where people once again want to “jump on the band-wagon”. For example if you had 5,000 friends would people be more likely to join again.

I have noticed a similar effect on eBay. When my feedback gets about 10,000 your seen as “big business”.

By: One Mo

One Mo — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:08:45 +0000

One young woman I know (18 years old) broke up with her boyfriend six months ago and discovered recently that he had “blocked her” on Facebook while at the same time posting as many of her friends and family as he could on his own Facebook page as “friends” of his.

The young woman in fact had no further interest in the ex-boyfriend, but said she was “annoyed to be treated like a stalker,” and was somewhat concerned that other friends of hers would think poorly of her based on his behaviour.

I’m intrigued by the use of Facebook as a venue for chest-beating, saving face, or relationship terrorism/nurturing, and suspect that it will be used increasingly for such diverse emotional and psychological purposes.

Do you know of any interesting articles on this topic, Joshua?

By: Aaron B

Aaron B — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:27:17 +0000

Facebook is how I found out my wife was pregnant. With another man’s baby.

But more seriously, I like your characterization of Facebook as a “semi-public place where people go.” Take the wall for example, why do people prefer it to a private message? What you talk about on Facebook is fun because it’s eavesdroppable.

Anecdotally, I do know someone whose relationship was made official on Facebook.

By: Cat Laine

Cat Laine — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:25:45 +0000

@Peter Davis 5-15 seems woefully small. For me that’s the group of regular friends who I’m in regular email contact with. I don’t need a social networking platform to keep in contact with them.

25-75 friends are folks who I like a lot, but don’t have time to call all the time. Old roommates, friends of college or grad school, old colleagues.

75+, You’re probably getting into some business contacts, friends of friends, folks who you want to get to know better.

By: Jason Sadler

Jason Sadler — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:01:51 +0000

Josh,

Can you put a “friend counter” up with this post to let us know how many friend requests you get?

By: Rainer

Rainer — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:25:26 +0000

A funny mail comes to my mind here:

I once bought a piece of wood (kind of a dish) on ebay. I payed immediately and got my product delivered after a week.
A week later I got a mail from the manufacturer saying: “We haven’t received your feedback score yet. Put it on ebay or we will not give you your feedback score”.

I sent back a mail saying something like: “What value do you give to this ebay scoring? You annoy me with that mail instead of showing me your products and services, trying to make me buy more of your products?”

A stupid explanation came back with kind of reasoning like it would be important to have a lot of positive feedbacks.

That’s strange, isn’t it?

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:59:37 +0000

I go to Facebook knowing I’ll see activities that revolve entirely around my social life and having fun. I’m not looking to leverage the people in these activities to make money.

Many people from our industry seem happy to use Facebook for business. However, being 23 years old, my Facebook profile is filled with data from my social life, and most of this data is irrelevant to my professional side. I don’t like inflicting my professional side on my closest friends - I’d rather just joke around with them, so that’s how I use my Facebook profile.

By: Peter Davis

Peter Davis — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:31:21 +0000

On the other hand, several of my friends have a very low number of Facebook friends, like 5-15. I find that I don’t think of them as losers, but rather on the opposite end of the spectrum — as the most self secure.

It’s those weirdos with 25-75 friends who are losers — neither self secure nor popular

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:22:24 +0000

Interesting, although not entirely surprising. Our online lives and the “real world” is blending. The difference is getting smaller.

As for Facebook for business: way too public. The fact that others can tag me in (potentially embarrassing) photographs, which in turn can be viewed by clients or colleagues make LinkedIn a much more compelling network for business than Facebook.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:31:59 +0000

Neil, I would love it if you expanded on the reasons why you loath to use Facebook for business…

By: Neil

Neil — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:37:26 +0000

Joshua, I agree with using profiles on alternative services as unique views on a person. Social network services function much better (for me at least) if they are considered as a channel in to business / social / family lives. Facebook works well for my social side - but I loathe to use it for business.

Quite simply, Facebook’s 749px width isn’t enough screen real estate to provide an all encompassing view of someones life.