There is a big difference between friends and family, and there is a big difference between true friends and acquaintances. And might I say that there is a big difference between those who "friend" you on your Facebook or MySpace page, who you've never met, than an acquaintance that you have. If you belong to large social networks, then you probably know what I'm talking about, someone comes along and notes that you have similar hobbies, and similar life experiences, and perhaps you are aligned politically in some way, so they attempted to friend you.
Rather than being antisocial, you allow them to become your friend, however you don't even know if that is a real person, or very much about them other than what they have posted on their Facebook page. There have been situations where rapists, murderers, and degenerate criminals have attempted to friend unsuspecting folks. Then other friends see that they have "friended" other folks that they may know, and they become their friends as well. In other words, someone you would never care to talk to in your life has infiltrated your personal social network of friends. See that point?
Indeed there was a very interesting piece in the New York Times recently titled "Social Networks Offer a Way to Narrow the Field of Friends" by Jenna Worthham and Claire Cain Miller published by May 9, 2011. The article stated that "There are times when you just have to tell your friends about something - but not necessarily your Facebook friends."
It seems like social networks should have a multi-tiered system that allows you to list acquaintances, friends, and others who have just stopped by and perhaps liked a poem you wrote, share similar tastes in music, belong to the same religion, go to the same school, or something of this nature. This would allow them to access certain information on your page, but not all the information about your friends, family, or your next vacation when you will be out of town. This way folks that are only acquaintances, cannot come and rob your house while you're gone.
Indeed it will also allow you a legitimate excuse when someone you don't necessarily know, or for sure know if they are trustworthy "friends you" but indeed turns out to be a person of interest, or a suspect in a crime, or something of this nature. They say you can count your five closest friends on one hand, but many people have hundreds and hundreds of Facebook friends, some of which they've never met before. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it because this is a problem which needs to be solved as social networks you've all online.
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