Facebook Etiquette
One thing I’ve loved about Facebook is finding old high school friends. People I haven’t spoken to in ages, right? So when there’s a “friend request,” Facebook wants to know how we know each other. So I check the box “went to school together.”
But then there’s these other boxes, right?
“We hooked up.”
“We dated.”
And, in some cases (extremely rare, sadly, but that’s another story for a different blog), that might be true. So, here’s my Facebook etiquette question: Is that something I want to rehash with a married high school friend with three kids and who is only just “catching up”?
I mean, does Facebook even share that information with them? I’d be freaked out if I got a friend request saying, “Tina says you hooked up and it ruined her life and she’d like to get in touch again.” Yikes!
And if Facebook doesn’t share that hookup information, then… what are they collecting it for? The ultimate social networking map? “I totally networked that guy Friday night, and he hasn’t called me since…”
So does anyone actually check those boxes? And what does Facebook do with that information? Am I just old?
you are old. very very old. At least you don’t have students trying to become your facebook friend. Blech.
Posted on Oct 30, 2007.
“…ad-industry executives familiar with the company’s plans said the social network is looking to better use the data its users voluntarily offer up on their profiles… Facebook could use some of what it knows about people — and their relationships with others on the site, what is known as the “social graph” — to target them off Facebook as well.” AdAge
From what I can tell, I believe the friend request information specification works like this. Someone, Joe, requests someone else, Suzie, as a friend. Suzie is then asked to specify how they know Joe but can decline to. Then Joe is asked to confirm the details and can at this point approve or edit them. So, in short people can see the details you select about how you know them. And, if you view your friends list, anyone who has chosen to specify should have the details under their image in that list.
Posted on Oct 31, 2007.
Many Facebook users use the “Friend Detail Request” feature for all contacts. It helps maintain the social timeline feature.
Personally, I dislike the feature for 2 reasons:
1) The privacy concerns you bring up.
2) The way FB implemented the feature, whereby you select answers from check boxes rather than typing them in free form. I think this causes misleading details in some instances.
It can be amusing (and time consuming!) to negotiate “the details” back and forth because both parties must agree.
Posted on Nov 1, 2007.
Here’s that link I tried to post earlier.
The quote in my previous comment was from an AdAge Article located here: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=121440
Posted on Nov 1, 2007.