Why do some people think that their popularity and acceptance is measured by the number of Facebook friends?

[Nikki]

People are into what everyone else is apparently into these days, they make it seem like it's a life and death situation where they basically put their lives into the site for others to see or care about what's going on and sometimes to just gain a reputation for popularity itself. It's sad really, but they figure they might as well do it since everyone else is like it's some competition and that they can express themselves better than how they would if they were to meet up with the people in person. It shows that these days people simply lack actual communication and focus on things that shouldn't even matter in their lives since it's not going to help them much for when they need to actually get themselves out there. Don't listen to them at all, at least you're being smart.