Facebook fwends

Okay, so this whole rant could be fairly easily remedied by just, you know, not having a facebook, but I need to stalk a special few somehow and peeping on profile pages is more convenient than peeping through windows for all involved ;).

I guess this gripe could be stretched out over the internet as a whole. There's something about it that encourages people to assume a higher level of familiarity then they would ever even attempt to recreate in real life. There's people that I work with that I have spoken to about 3 times in the three years I've been working there who think nothing of sending friend requests on all social media platforms. I know that this happens everyday everywhere but when you step back and really look at it it's bloody weird.

A friend request says "I want to see you holiday photos". It says "I want to read what your plans are for this weekend". "I want to know what's going on with your friends/love life/ family etc". "I want to know which Disney princess that quiz says you are most like" and so on. Which is pretty weird. People I've not spoken to in years would never randomly approach me in the street and ask me what the last funny video I watched on youtube was, that'd be weird and they'd look nuts. But online it's okay to do that because...it's not in person I guess?

Maybe if we lived in a more anonymous society we'd all do this? If we had a carnival period, like Venice, and we all went around in cloaks and masks for a month maybe we'd get more people we - apparently - know shouting 'I LIKE THAT PHOTO OF YOU AS A BABY!' *thumbs up* ? To be fair if that's the alternative I'll stick with facebook (casually not noticing the virtual strangers who've friend requested me).