Friend, Acquaintance, or Stranger?

[decibel45]

Online communities do a horrible job of mirroring how social interactions actually work in the real world. This causes problems in numerous ways, such as people getting upset when you "de-friend" them.

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Comments

[snaxxx]

I don't know if I'd use the word "horrible", social media in online format is definitely evolving. I'll post some links on ivo post to elaborate my opinion.

And yes, I know that "social media" isn't a new concept, seen that argument iirc.

[vixi]

Six different friends have mentioned these "de-friending" spats on their ljs. I personally don't care.. I do use filters to read "just people" or "just communities".

This just seems to be a common thread lately.

[xv]

Everything we do while alive happens in the real world, and that includes online communities. If you were to call someone on the phone and inform them that they're no longer your friend, they would also have cause for concern. Personally I don't feel the need to publicly identify who my best friends are because they already know who they are and that's all that matters. It might be a different story if I used LJ's security features, but my friends can't keep secrets anyway so why bother.

[heidinoel]

i just joined facebook. i was all about myspace until i saw MY DAD playing scrabble with holly on facebook... i felt so left out. now i refer to both of them as "myspacebook". I tried to add you but couldn't access your page when i clicked the link you sent via email. did you get my invite? addmeaddme! hehe
how's it goin anyway??

[decibel45]

It's going http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MN0eAGmMOU well...

Ok, it's not actually that bad. :P