You’ve probably seen the ads recently about this one girl who sets out to meet her facebook friends in person. I thought it was an interesting idea.
It made me think about how true “friendships” can’t be quantified. I have over 400 “friends,” yet many of these people I haven’t seen or spoken to in years. If I ran into them on the street, would I even recognize them? Would they recognize me? Many of my “friends” would be better described as “acquaintances,” and even that may be generous. Some “friends” are completely random people I’ve never met. Why they added me (and why I accepted), I have no idea.
So I performed a quick audit this week, to try and remember when the last time I saw or communicated with each of my friends. It was a real memory test, and the results were pretty surprising:
- I’d hung out with, seen, or otherwise communicated with 27% of my “friends” in the past year.
- Going back 3 years, that number jumped to 35%.
- Going back 5 years, it was 44%.
- I haven’t seen 53% of my friends in the last 5 years.
- 6% I haven’t seen in 10 or more years.
- 3% are total strangers.
- 4% are people I’ve only ever met once.
I’m curious if these results are typical. Being 5 years removed from UW put a lot of college friends into the 5+ year category. A lot of former co-workers fell into the 3-5 year range. And I’m sure moving away from Seattle has had a lot to do with it too.
Facebook is a great tool for connecting people. But when all that’s connecting you is some php code and say, a shared middle school, it’s more than a little overzealous to call that connection a friendship. I need to do a better job keeping in touch with people, that’s for sure!
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