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

[Alice]

They can't see your entire personality, so they'll start to base it in things that give out information such as facebook. There are those people who would tend to look for something to compete with, and this comes to answer the question on why there are people who are actually bragging about the number of friends they have in facebook. It will not only show how popular you are to other people who base it that way, it will also bring you a feeling of acceptance that a lot of people actually like you regardless of who invited who.