I know there are discussions about how people try to either attain or pretend to maintain a certain degree of popularity based on the number of friends on their Facebook page. As of today I had 300 something, which according to most expert accounts (and really, how DO you get to be a Facebook expert, anyway?) means I'm a Facebook whore. The reality, however, is really much deeper and can't be easily categorized by a few simple terms or by a certain number. The truth is.....I'm a Mafia Wars whore. See? That's much better!
I play MW and I belong to groups where I invite lots of people who are also playing to be my friends with the implicit mutual understanding that it's for one reason: to add them to my mafia. It's not a selfish act as it works both ways; they also add me to THEIR mafia, so it's really a mano y mano thing here.
Unfortunately, this also means that I routinely have to go through my ever expanding friends list and then remove them else I perpetuate the myth that I am, in fact, seeking friendships among strangers as the experts insist. Here's where the fun comes in.
I go through my friends list and delete the ones I don't know. It seems like an easy enough task, but as I go through my list, I find myself unable, no....unwilling to delete some of these unknowns. I almost feel as if I'm forever deleting the opportunity to really pursue a genuine friendship with Tiki Twins, and who wouldn't want to be friends with someone who has a name like that? Or Benediktus Andreas from Sweden who has my maiden name. How do I know he's NOT family somehow, somewhere down the line? And wouldn't it be great to have a friend in some of these faraway places where I've never been and probably will never go? Can't Sven from Denmark stay? What about the ones who have symbols in their names? I've always thought a symbol would be pretty awesome. It's like having a tattoo in your name. Maybe I could keep just one or two of those symbol people. Then there's the matter of accidentally deleting people who really ARE my friends from my message board days, but I don't recognize their real names or their real faces, and without their avatar or username, I have no way of knowing if they're true friend or foe. I do find it easier to let go of strangers who have their location listed anywhere near the eastern part of the United States. If they're within a day's drive of me, that's too close for comfort and they're history.
The funniest part of this whole situation, though, are the comments I see from these people as they temporarily invade my facebook page and they bitch about people adding them to their mafia and then defriending them from their facebook page. This ANGERS them. This causes some people to retaliate and attack. I cannot grasp this concept. Why in the world would these perfect strangers who have never met me, never heard of me, never have any reason to talk to me, see me, know me, or care about me, give a flying' you-know-what if I defriend them? We AREN'T friends!!! We never were! It was always just a business transaction, nothing more. There was never any feeling involved. There was no commitment to further the relationship. There was no "I'll keep posting on your page and let you know what's going on in my life." It was a one-night add and delete, and nothing more.
I guess the experts were right all along. I really am a Facebook whore after all.
Queen of my own Magic Kingdom, full of all the irreverent, obnoxious, and sometimes offensive sarcasm you know and love. I don't care what people think of me, but I do care if you like my blog. Read, forward, repeat.
