Social Media and the Ilusion of Friends

In my continuing series "Americans and our dumber society" I want to talk about Social Media and the illusion of friends.  If you are a member of society you most likely have a social media page like on Facebook or Linkedin.  If you are really cool then you have a twitter account and you tweet all your inane ideas to your followers.

We all have "friends" on Facebook.  Of course we all know that they are not really our friends.  Well only a small percentage are actual friends.  There seems to be 13 distinct categories that people fit into as your friend on Facebook.  I would tend to agree.  I in fact have looked through my friends on facebook and currently I have 129 people that have asked to be my friend.  I do not ever ask to be anyones friend.  Here is the breakdown:

1. The over zealous updater:
   12
2. The Link-Bot:
   0
3. The Groupie:
   0
4. I am my kids:
   15
5. Spies (who used to) like us:
   0
6. The Wanna Be:
   0
7. The Two Facer:
   5 (I think)
8. The Networker:
   10
9. The over poker:
   4
10. The get a lifer:
    0
11. The attention seeker:
    70
12. The Over Suggester:
    0 (I unfriend immediately)
13. The Good Friend:
    Everyone left 14

I have a weekly ritual of unfriending some people that fits in Categories 1 - 12.  I do this because they illustrate their stupidity by their posts.  Let me explain:

People's personality comes out if you happen to hang out with them for a long period of time.  You may or may not like their personality.  For example, lets say that you and your significant other goes camping with a friend and their significant other for a week.  Normally you would not see your friend for this amount of time over a year.  As you hang out with them you notice that they are childish, not very smart and have some odd tendencies.  Well people, Facebook is like that camping trip.  Only difference is that you are hanging out with  100s of these type people.

Here is a conversation on Facebook I found today:

Obviously this person has found out that their friends are not really their friends.  In my opinion Social media is like a magnifying glass for ignorance.  With the onslaught of mobile devices out numbering people and with people not having self control.  It's not that people are getting more ignorant and selfish.  They have always been ignorant and selfish.  We just never spent enough time with them to find out how ignorant they are.  Social media shines a light and magnifies the society of dullards.