Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

July 9, 2008 8:14:29 AM CDT

Learn about Newser Points »

Back to the grid

Online Friending Grows Stranger

Posted May 18, 08 6:00 AM CDT in Arts & Living,  Technology    Editor's Choice

(Newser) – How many online friends is too many? Facebook insists users can only have 5,000—and that's not enough for some, discovers Stephen Levy in Newsweek. "Who am I to say no to friendship?" asks one user who spends 12 hours a day on Facebook and has a waiting list of 500 would-be pals. Levy even discovers a mere potato on MySpace with 2,695 friends.

Users never have to say no on MySpace, which sets no caps—though the average number of friends is 180. But don't expect most of the "friends"—who often have at best a tenuous connection—to deliver chicken soup on sick days, quips Levy. Some of them can be downright weird, but difficult to rebuf when they pepper users with friend requests. Those who don't draw the line risk sharing very personal details with virtual strangers.

Source Newsweek

Editor Recommended

Related News

  • Online Spaces Snub Free Speech That Offends

    Jul 7, 08 6:52 PM CDT
    Online Spaces Snub Free Speech That Offends A variety of websites are deleting postings that could offend, and with full legal protection—sparking debate about whether free speech exists online. Case in point: an image of a young smoker posted on Yahoo's photo service. It was cut for promoting underage smoking, but the photographer calls it a comment on Romanian street life. "I never thought of it as a photo of a smoking kid," he said. More »

  • Facebook to Ask Users to Specify Gender

    Jun 27, 08 3:15 PM CDT
    Facebook to Ask Users to Specify Gender Facebook announced a seemingly minor change today: Users will soon be prompted to specify a gender for their “mini-feed” updates. The site has been using the awkward “themself” to avoid gender specificity, but Facebook managers say that doesn’t work so well when the site is translated into languages that ingrain gender into grammar, CNET eports. More »

  • When Is A Facebook Friend Just A Friend?

    Jun 27, 08 8:12 AM CDT
    When Is A Facebook Friend Just A Friend? There’s a movement among some social Web services, from MySpace and Yahoo to Plaxo, to let users share data, the MIT Technology Review reports. Take Google’s new Friend Connect, a service that lets users transport profiles and connections among sites. But Facebook, for one, is swimming against the tide, working to control its users’ data and arguing that control protects their privacy. More »

  • Facebook Just 'Flavor of the Month': Murdoch

    Jun 23, 08 3:11 PM CDT
    Facebook Just 'Flavor of the Month': Murdoch Rupert Murdoch today insulted the rival of his popular MySpace, calling Facebook the “flavor of the month” and a mere “directory”—on the occasion of his social networking sinking to the No. 2 spot in worldwide traffic. The media mogul said Facebook was not a real social network, and pointed to MySpace’s entertainment focus, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. More »

  • LinkedIn Scores $53M in Capital, $1B Value

    Jun 18, 08 8:48 AM CDT
    LinkedIn Scores $53M in Capital, $1B Value LinkedIn—the buttoned-down, anti-Facebook social networking site for professionals—is about to up its profile with a $53 million infusion of private equity that will allow it to make acquisitions and expand its reach overseas, reports the New York Times. The new financing values the company at a hefty $1 billion, in between the $580 million News Corp. paid for MySpace in 2005 and the $15 billion value assigned to Facebook last year when Microsoft bought a stake.
    More »

A woman looks on as she chats with a friend online at her home.   (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
The Facebook logo.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
A computer.   (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
prev    next
play

Threads (1 of 3)

Tags

Internet  • Facebook  • MySpace  • social networking  • website  • Friendster


Loading...

Loading...

Related Threads: Social Networking, The Internet, Web 2.0 Watch

Next story from this section »

Today's Most Popular


Other Technology Stories

What is Newser?

2008 Codie Finalist

Newser gives you more news in less time. We search for the best and most important stories all over the web, read them for you, and deliver concise and sharp summaries—along with links to the full text. Newser provides a way to stay on top of an ever-expanding horizon of news and opinion—politics, sports, business, trends, technology, personalities, crimes, and controversies. Newser keeps you not just better informed, but, with our signature graphic interface and smart condensed format, more enjoyably informed.

Learn more »