The Reality of Facebook Friends - An Experiment

Experiment Topic: The Reality of Facebook Friends

Aim: To find out how much of a friend a person must be to become another person's friend on Facebook.

Hypothesis: To the level of an acquaintance

Method:

(1) Start an alter ego account in the name of Andrew *********

(2) Add 150 people at random, from One Piece interest groups.

(3) Post links and status updates.

(4) Respond all wall posts and messages in a friendly manner.

Results and Findings:

i) Only 3 people (out of 150) messaged to ask how they know me i.e. "Hi, where have we met before? Where do i know you from?"

ii) About 90% of the 150 accepted my friend request, and that number comes to about 135.

iii) A further 15+ people request me to be their friend.

iv) In 14 days i had around this many friends on Facebook.

v) 12 people wished me a happy birthday


vi) And finally, 13 people tagged me in their 'All my friends' photo via the 'All my friends' Facebook application. 13 people - significantly more than the number of people who tagged me in the 'All my friends' on my real account.


Conclusion:

a. It is very possible and extremely easy to become Facebook friends with people you have never before met in real life.

b. People generally don't mind adding random friends on Facebook.

c. Having more friends on Facebook can help a person gain more confidence for making friends in the real world.