What's the average number of friends for Facebook?

[Jeremy]

I have been on Facebook for two months now and am up to 530 friends. Is this considered a small number of friends? I was thinking to shoot out a few hundred more requests to get over 1000, but I don't know if this might be pushing my luck. I'm still a noob to FB so thanks a million in advance.
WTF!!! I almost crapped myself after checking the 'answers' I received. What the hell is wrong with you people? If you don't want to answer questions positively, go jump off a cliff!!!!

[Rhymes with Shmero]

Facebook isn't about how many friends you can get, it's about connecting with people you actually care about....

[Maria]

i have about 40 real friends who are on facebook. i don't want to be facebook friends with thousands of people i don't know.

[Team Rocket Member]

Yep. 2000 is the average standard.

Shoot out friend requests to people you never met, such as your friends' friends, people who share the same likes as you, or just random people you find by typing in a name into the search bar.

The worst they can say is no. So, what are you waiting for, start adding friends so you'll be the most popular kid in your school.

[Team Rocket Member]

Well, I believe Facebook wasn't intended to be used to hunt for friends, but I digress.

[Russel]

You are lame if you have more than the ones you are actually friends with. Facebook is for networking, it's not a competition.

[danny c]

Talking like it matters how many friends you have I can tell your noob.

[some guy]

I get the whole 'wanting a large number of friends on Facebook'-buzz, I do (be hipocritical if I didn't because I wanted as many as possible til I realized I only actually speak to about 10), but don't forget that having ALOT of facebook friends also greatly increases your chances of being unfriended by any number of people who may go to your page, see you have umpteen thousand friends, then realize they'll not be missed if they unfriend you because you have so many friends you wouldn't be able to notice them anyway.

I think it's actually a great way to get depressed and to take your mind off posting things which matter to you, which is what (I think) facebook should be about - like a continuously live yearbook of your life with no real end (as in a definitive final edition - forgetting about death for a moment - will never be printed and you'll just keep posting updates).

If you have 2000+ friends, also consider this : this year, facebook reformed the 'unsubscribe/subscribe' system so it now works on a familiarity system (I believe). If, for example, 1950 of your 2000 friends don't interact with you for however long, your updates wont appear on their walls and you'll basically just be a number to them.

A more impressive gauge of your friends is how many different people's updates you see on your wall because that will tell you which of those on your list are regularly checking out whatever it is you post.