Recently, a dear friend from Facebook deleted two of her "friends" posing as someone they were not. She was visibly upset. About a month back, I received friend requests along with freaky messages like, "I love your pictures", "I am looking for a friendship/girlfriend with no strings attached" from complete strangers! Despite ignoring them, the messages were persistent. It is not uncommon for women to receive such friend requests and messages. Fortunately, it is easy to block such people but these disturbing experiences certainly convey how casual our connections on social networking sites are becoming!
I am blessed to have met some very fine human beings on Facebook and it feels wonderful to connect with such gifted people and learn, share and laugh with them. Honestly, I am quite a snob when it comes to accepting friend requests on Facebook! I have my reasons for that. Every time I get a friend request, 9/10 times it is without a note or brief introduction of the sender. Imagine you are at some party and a complete stranger approaches you and says, "let us be friends" without giving any introduction of self. How would you feel? Little freaky, wouldn't you?
What do you do in cases when checking profile of the person who sent you the request is not much of help? Of course, one is not obliged to reply to such requests and I simply ignore them. Sometimes, when profile conveys basic information about the person, and if I find possibility of any connection, I ask them something like, "pardon me but I don't remember having met you or am not sure if I know you. Would you mind writing briefly about yourself please?" Interestingly, many people vanish at this juncture, some reply and in some cases, their replies give interesting glimpse of how people perceive "friendships" on Facebook.
How much does it cost to show some basic courtesy? There is nothing wrong in sending friend requests but just like real life, little courtesy helps. It doesn't matter on which platform one meets people, makes friends and finds some common things that connect. World is full of wonderful people waiting to be our friends. All one needs to meet them is be careful, courteous and honest just like real world! And yes, social decorum pays even in virtual world of Facebook IF you are looking for value!
I am blessed to have met some very fine human beings on Facebook and it feels wonderful to connect with such gifted people and learn, share and laugh with them. Honestly, I am quite a snob when it comes to accepting friend requests on Facebook! I have my reasons for that. Every time I get a friend request, 9/10 times it is without a note or brief introduction of the sender. Imagine you are at some party and a complete stranger approaches you and says, "let us be friends" without giving any introduction of self. How would you feel? Little freaky, wouldn't you?
What do you do in cases when checking profile of the person who sent you the request is not much of help? Of course, one is not obliged to reply to such requests and I simply ignore them. Sometimes, when profile conveys basic information about the person, and if I find possibility of any connection, I ask them something like, "pardon me but I don't remember having met you or am not sure if I know you. Would you mind writing briefly about yourself please?" Interestingly, many people vanish at this juncture, some reply and in some cases, their replies give interesting glimpse of how people perceive "friendships" on Facebook.
How much does it cost to show some basic courtesy? There is nothing wrong in sending friend requests but just like real life, little courtesy helps. It doesn't matter on which platform one meets people, makes friends and finds some common things that connect. World is full of wonderful people waiting to be our friends. All one needs to meet them is be careful, courteous and honest just like real world! And yes, social decorum pays even in virtual world of Facebook IF you are looking for value!
