Collecting friends like Pokemon

Why do we collect friends on Facebook, Twitter, Google like Pokemon?

Sounds like an odd post, but it bothers me.

I mean, if someone wants to follow me on Twitter or Google Followers, I am totally psyched. Happy to the max.

But if let’s say I am actively saying: FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER, ONE MORE FOLLOWER AND I WILL HAVE 1000 FOLLOWERS WOOT!!!.. .that’s just lame. To the max.

Whenever I read tweets like that of people that I follow, I immediately un-follow.

I don’t want to be part of their Tweeting domination racket scheme.

— If I were a Pokemon, I’d be Snorlax. This one seems to understand the importance of food and sleep.

I will also confess that I do not follow everyone on my list. I tried, but then I got overwhelmed, booted Twitter out of my life with nary a peep and hit “READ ALL” on my little list.

So now I’m trying to keep my list to 100 people or less. The less, the better. So I removed everyone I didn’t kind of know online.

And if you message me consistently or reply to my tweets, I’ll follow you back, but.. generally I think people just open accounts and forget about them.

(By the way, I’ve switched off TweetDeck onto TwitterFox which is at least working properly and consistently, the #1 criteria on a list of things that software programs should do)

It’s the same crap on Facebook.

People I haven’t seen in YEARS, have started adding me as a friend on Facebook and then you get caught up in the dilemma of: Do I add them and pretend we’re friends? Or do I ignore them and then feel guilty because we played hopscotch together and ate lollipops as kids?

I admit adding people I don’t really know or are close friends with on Facebook, but it’s for the reason of checking up on them to see how they fared over the years. Shhh!!!

I’ve cut down my list on Facebook too. It was getting to be too fake for me, pretending to be friends with a girl I detested in business school just because she wanted to add another business school PokeFriend on her list.

I was aiming for 50 friends or less, but I ended up at 65. If I could chop another 15, I’d be happy, but they’re on there for various un-friendable reasons.

But what makes a person un-friendable, you say?

Great question.

If I haven’t…

• seen/heard from them in years and then they do a little message to say “Hi!’ then stop replying
• really gotten along with them in the past or present
• really been a part of their active lives for the past year or so
• considered them to be a lifelong friend, whether they message me or not

I feel like a Twitter, Google Follower or Facebook Pokemon, and it feels fake.