Too Many Friends on Facebook

The summer before going off to college, I was bombarded with about 100 or so friend requests from people who were in my class.  Although excited, I had no idea who these people were.  While it looked like I was already friends with a bunch of people at my school, these people only added to confusion later.  The mass amounts of people who I was friends with on Facebook only turned out to be awkward encounters around campus.  "Hey! I recognize you from Facebook!" isn't the best way to start out a conversation in college.  Not only do you look like a stalker but it only provides for the following conversation to consist of "yah? cool" and then an awkward goodbye.  For some reason every incoming class feels the responsibility to be connected to as many people as they can within their grade.  However, as the management review entitled 'Six Myths About Informal Networks' says, more connectivity could lead to more confusion because people feel 'bogged down' with all the relationships.  

I may have actually talked to about three or four people who friended me on Facebook before I came to American but I still accepted all one hundred of them as my friends. The people I actually had conversations with on Facebook were good resources for me.  I realized that other people were in the same boat as I was.  There were quite a few girls coming from Texas like I was and I was comforted but I definitely didn't have something in common with all one hundred people who I was friends with.  I only got confused when I saw someone and thought I had met them before, but really, I only briefly looked at their profiles on Facebook when I was friended by them. 

Being too connected could hinder performance.  A single person can only remember so many names and only multi task so much.  Networks should remain as simple as possible to make the company run efficiently.  You need to not be overwhelmed by your social network.  The more comfortable you feel with it, the more you will be able to use it productively.  By the time I had too  many friends, I decided that it was nearly impossible to stay in touch with every person from my high school.  Eventually I just stopped posting on other peoples walls.  I rarely check Facebook because there are just too many people to keep up with.  The same could occur with an employee of a company.  There is such a thing as being too connected.