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My New Years’ resolution for 2020 will be to reduce the number of my Facebook friends. Unlike the woman from Kenya who had 5000, I can’t manage 400. Some friends I doubt are real. They never comment on the news feed. Once a year I send them my annual birthday greeting to which I get no response.
Facebook friends are different in degree from real-life friends. I know that. Even so, I’ve managed to grow fond of those who comment on the news feed now and again. I enjoy reading about the snatches of their lives–births, deaths, or a report about the tooth that ached all night. Though we’ve never met, I know they are real. Their tribulations are too human. Besides, they also make me laugh or offer an idea that teases me to think– people who live in places as far away as Kenya, India, Australia, and China.
We all know fake people exist on the internet and I work to banish them as best I can. What’s mindboggling to me is that some people do the opposite. They “buy” fake people to add to their websites. It’s a marketing strategy for some, those who want to attract attention as a trendsetter. To each his own, but it strikes me as sad.
The Federal Trade Commission frowns on this chicanery, in any case. The agency recently prosecuted one industry that peddled fake people as a business. Devumi ran several websites where people could buy not only fake followers but also fake clicks and fake likes. Again, I shake my head. I’m too old to understand.
So, being old, come January 2020, I will whittle down the number of my Facebook friends. I’m confident no feelings will be hurt. Given the absence of page activity, I suspect these people don’t exist.
