I've been pondering something recently...
Why do I have more Ravelry friends than Facebook friends?
With just a few exceptions, all of my Facebook friends are people that I know in real life (or knew at some point), and with just a few exceptions, all of my Ravelry friends are people that I have never met in real life.
What is even more weird is that with a few exceptions, I'm usually friended first by someone on Ravelry and then I respond by friending back. I'm kind of afraid to reach out for friending...
And the same is true on Facebook, if not more so. Sometimes when I'm bored, I'll look through the friends of people I graduated high school with and notice how many of them are now Facebook friends with each other. I can't count how many times I think to myself "they were never friends in high school!" There seems to be (at least from what I can tell) a sense of "hey, I knew you in high school, let's friend!" (And yes, I mean to use friend as a verb). And if that's the extent of it (and definitely that's the feeling I've gotten from friend invites from people I knew in high school, but never hung out with), then I shouldn't be so worried about friending others I knew from high school, right? But no. I see certain people on others' friends lists and think, "wow, he/she was so popular in high school, there's no way they'll respond favorably to a friend invitation from me." And this is even though the person's list they are on is someone who I'd consider on my high school popularity level (or lack there of). Here it is more than 10 years post high school graduation and I'm still afraid of the popular kids, and still desiring that they make the first friend overture.
Damn you Facebook for making life feel like I'm 17 all over again!!
Comments (3)
This girl from HS tried sending me a friend request on FB just last week. I had to ignore her, all she ever said to me was insulting things about my brother! Like, um, I don't forget nasty stuff like that. Such drama. She probably wanted to see where I ended up working, or who I married (or if I was married).
Posted by Lelah | February 14, 2009 1:15 AM
Posted on February 14, 2009 01:15
I've heard a lot of people comment about this aspect of Facebook - it's like high school all over again. I've generally had a pretty good experience with old friends on Facebook, even if it was someone who maybe wasn't so nice to me in school..and there certainly are a lot of those. ;) but I think sometimes making new internet friends is just way easier than connecting with old real life friends.
Posted by Carrie | February 15, 2009 8:29 PM
Posted on February 15, 2009 20:29
My FaceBook friends are about 50/50 with people I know and don't know. Certainly the Ravelry group is higher with people I don't know. I think in Ravelry's case I find it easier to "friend" strangers because you know they like knitting, you can check what groups they're in and see what they like to work on. It gives you a really good idea if they're you're kind of internet friend.
Posted by Nancy | February 17, 2009 10:43 AM
Posted on February 17, 2009 10:43