Why do people say they have 500 or more friends on Facebook? Isn't that delusional?

[beren andres]

Are these people really "friends"? Or just people who say they are?

In life you're darn lucky if you have 5 genuine friends, people who will be there for you when things are tough.

[Y]

I have over 500 friends on facebook. This is because I have been using it for 7 years. It's not impossible.

[WolfScopez11]

It's not impossible to achieve, realistically they'd probably only know 100 at the max, although Facebook doesn't help by pressuring users who have under 200 friends to 'find friends'

[Nathan]

Frankly I start forgetting names after about 5 friends but better five close friends (in real life) than 500 acquaintances.

[george]

You need to learn to distinguish between Facebook friends and friends. It's entirely possible that someone has 500 or more Facebook friends. Anyone can see how many Facebook friends a person has. But, having all those Facebook friends doesn't mean that the person knows them all.

Some people add acquaintances even if they only see them at a club or at parties but never talk to them otherwise. Some people add from a gaming community so they have "neighbors" to go up levels in games. Some people will add everyone in their graduating class at school. With all of these add-ons, the friend counter goes up.

So, it's not delusional. They really DO have 500 Facebook friends. The real questions is how many of them do they actually know?

[Christine]

Most of these people won't actually be friends and depending on how long they have been using Facebook they might not have even met some of them. Although, I guess if you had been using it for years and had been thorough school and university then you could have a lot of friends and know them all, even if you hadn't spoken to them for years!

[Giancarlo]

So many of my friends are sick of Facebook, mostly because they think it is a poor substitute for real social contacts, as in face to face. When FB started out it seemed so cool and people jumped at the chance to reconnect with lost loves and school friends. That was good. But then after a while the whole thing lost its allure and it just became a chore having to check up on the latest message.

I have lots of friends and I never use Facebook. It's so much better to be able to talk eye to eye, to hug and kiss, to transfer pictures and other things in real time and real space.