Facebook ID Probe Shows Things Getting Worse 174
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the what-is-a-friend-anyway dept.
from the what-is-a-friend-anyway dept.
An anonymous reader writes "According to Sophos, Facebook users are getting sloppier with their personal info, not better. Revisiting a 2007 survey in which a plastic frog got 87 hits out of 200 friend requests, this time a rubber duck and a cat got 87 out of 200 friend requests, plus a bonus 8 friends who decided to trust them anyway. The research also suggests that older Facebook users are sloppier than the young, being keener to build their list of friends. (The older users had more than 4x the friends each, on average, than the young.)"
Olders users know more people? (Score:4, Funny)
The older users had more than 4x the friends each, on average, than the young.
It's like older users know more people than younger users, and that's just not possible. Kids know everything, just ask them.
Unfair Tests (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Useless results (Score:3, Funny)
This proves nothing of any use, since the first probe was done in the UK, and the more recent one in Australia.
Sure it does. It shows a disturbing trend among the people of the Commonwealth.
They got me... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Olders users know more people? (Score:5, Funny)
"When I was 18, I thought my father was the dumbest man on earth. By the time I turned 23, I was amazed what the old man had learned in five years." - Unknown
Re:Possibly because... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes and clearly Facebook isn't about "who do you know now", its about "who have you known through your whole life who can come back to haunt you".
Re:That, or we don't give a shit. (Score:5, Funny)
Skewed results... (Score:5, Funny)
I was running a similar experiment. And my pet cat Heisenberg befriended the Rubber Duck, a Nigerian prince, a Ukrainian boyband, and various sundry inanimate objects from other similar experiments.
Re:Olders users know more people? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, this is based on a completely unscientific poll of my brain cells, but it seems older users would be more likely to, at least initially, treat sites like Facebook as something new to just try out, a fun toy more than a serious part of their lives, and thus less likely to care that much about how they expose themselves on such a site.
Old people exposing themselves on facebook seems like a far larger problem than than this article speaks of.
Re:Nah - I think you can blame Mafia Wars, Farmvil (Score:5, Funny)
I think you can blame Mafia Wars, Farmville
Thanks for reminding me. I need to harvest my crops!
Re:Unfair Tests (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Olders users know more people? (Score:1, Funny)
Well, that certainly adds a new wrinkle to the problem...
Re:Olders users know more people? (Score:1, Funny)
"Imma let you finish but Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill have the most amount of quotes falsely attributed to them of all time"
-Mark Twain
You can do that to your friend's list? (Score:5, Funny)
Heck I've gone through my friend's list and purged out people I don't talk to or in other instances strongly dislike from way back in high school.
Personally, I think its irresponsible of your friend to have given you the kind of access necessary to remove people from his or her list.