Turns Out Those Six Thousand People Who Are Your 'Friends' On MySpace Aren't Really Your Friends

from the no,-really? dept

Tue, Sep 11th 2007 10:25am — Mike Masnick

This seems unlikely to come as a surprise to most people, but despite the number of tools and applications such as social networks for getting people to network with each other, the number of close friends that most people have hasn't really changed -- and it almost always involves people who have gotten to know each other face-to-face rather than online. This isn't particularly surprising or new, nor does it suggest that there's anything less real about online friends. It just confirms what pretty much everyone knows: while it's certainly possible to meet and get to know people quite well through online venues, meeting in person still has plenty of benefits -- especially for reaching a closer level of friendship.

Filed Under: friends, relationships, social networks
Companies: facebook, myspace

20 Comments

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jt, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:14am

gimme a break
anyone reading this blog doesn't have a friend anyway.

mySpace is cotton candy for the soul.

(First?)
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Happy Gilmore, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:15am

They is my friends
I don't use tgose applications to meet new friends. I use them to keep up with and find old ones.
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- cheeeeeeeeeeese, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:51am
  
  Re: They is my friends
  indeed. Finding friends solely online will land you permanently in grandma's basement, or on Dateline, or both.
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Common Sense, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:20am

get off the computers and start talking to people!
It's easy to realize that having thousands of friends online doesn't really translate into any meaningful friendships and/or relationships. Those types of "friends" should be called "temporary fans", especially for artists and musicians using MySpace. So get off the computer and start making real friends in your surroundings.
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- jb, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:31am
  
  Re: get off the computers and start talking to peo
  You forgot make some real music worth listening to.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:21am

I've met most of my friends on this techdirt site
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- Anonymous Coward, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:25am
  
  Re:
  AC @ #4 You mean like Dorpus and Angry Dude....tht's sad.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:36am
    
    Re: Re:
    wtf mate, dorpus is a hero
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silver, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:29am

I once had a friend but he died, of lonliness, then I got another friend, but he broke his leash and ran away, but then I had a third friend, until i forgot to water it. Now I have no friends, maby I should give myspace a try :)
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Shohat1, 11 Sep 2007 @ 11:56am

Oh - My - GOD!
Holy crap !
You mean 500+ on linkedin are not actually business contacts, blog isn't a resume , and as self-inflicted CEO title doesn't mean that person is an executive ?!
Oh my.
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Wolfger, 11 Sep 2007 @ 12:09pm

myspace is garbage, but I've made lots of online friends who are actual friends.
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Prometheus, 11 Sep 2007 @ 12:46pm

How do you know - who really is your friend?
Friends!? hmmm …The ones that I have … I had found when I was much younger. A time when I was not so cynical about life, fair play, and especially justice. (When you are young … you believe there is justice, but when you are old … you know that there is no justice) My true friends were just as excited about life as I.

The main thing and most importantly, we trusted each other with our deepest secrets of our love life, dreams, and ambitions. My friends are still there to kick my rear-end when it is truly needed, or even during a rare moment that a hug is required. I do not trust easily anymore, nor am I so excited at all about life and living a dream.

Therefore, I have the very same old friends plus a few very special ones that I had acquired along the way … during some of my darkest moments. Until then, I did not even recognize that they truly were my friends. Frankly, I never had a friend or a lover that I could not trust.
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- Heracles, 11 Sep 2007 @ 12:54pm
  
  Re: How do you know - who really is your friend?
  Lighten up Francis.
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- Kilroy, 11 Sep 2007 @ 12:55pm
  
  Re: How do you know - who really is your friend?
  Apparently, you never worked in my office - styabbing in the back seems to be our pastime.
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- Grace, 6 Nov 2007 @ 4:56am
  
  Re: How do you know - who really is your friend?
  Hi... What you said up there was totally true. Your one of the few people on this that I agree with. Although I never acquired a friend while I was young I still have friends right now that I trust with my life and my deepest secrets.
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  - jim, 1 Dec 2008 @ 4:38am
    
    Re: Re: How do you know - who really is your friend?
    I once had a friend but he died, of lonliness, then I got another friend, but he broke his leash and ran away, but then I had a third friend, until i forgot to water it. Now I have no friends, maby laptop batteries I should give myspace a try :)
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chris (profile), 11 Sep 2007 @ 2:13pm

say what?
you mean all those bikini bitches that send me friend requests aren't interested in my seksay???
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o_O, 11 Sep 2007 @ 2:25pm

No shit?
Every great relationship is either founded on sex or loyal camaraderie. Tough for either ingredients to really come into play online.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Sep 2007 @ 3:19pm

I've never met anyone online that I'd be particularly interested in meeting offline. Myspace, or the like, is something I have no interest in nor am I ever likely to.
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ipanema, 12 Sep 2007 @ 12:54am

lol...i enjoyed reading the above comments. in social networking, most people just want to be 'seen', to be 'identified' with a certain person. the more they accumulate 'friends', the more 'popular' they think they've become.

well, everything is enclosed in quotation marks because most of it is superficial, I guess.

if you want to be friends with people in your community, there must interaction. otherwise, what good is it to have 5k faces whose only contribution is adorn your page.
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