Особливості лексичних засобів англомовних текстів з питань організації і функціонування соціальних мереж

Because Facebook is all about being social, it makes sense that you’ll want to connect with your friends, family, and colleagues. In fact, as you become more comfortable with Facebook, you may interact with friends of friends, see that they’re good fits, and send friend requests to them. Facebook says the average number of friends is 130, but just about everyone we know has many, many more. The following sections aim to help you understand what it means to be friends on Facebook and how to find people you want to connect with.

Understanding what it means to be friends on Facebook. In the real world, the term friend has different meanings to different people. If you ask an extrovert how many friends she has, she may say hundreds, because to her, everyone she meets is a friend. If you ask an introvert how many she has, she may say three, because her definition of a friend is much different from her extrovert counterpart’s. Neither answer is wrong, but you can see how perspective can change what it means to be friends.

Finding Friends

Along those same lines, the term friend is a little different in the world of social media than in the real world. Online, you may find that you’re friends with people you’ve never even met in person but have interacted with online through the comments on a mutual friend’s status updates or through other social media (such as Twitter or blogs). Or maybe someone you met at a party sends you a friend request on Facebook, and you accept. Your circle is widening in a way it may not in the real world.

Consider how you want to connect with others and your criteria for requesting and accepting Facebook friend requests. And respect how others deal with online friends. Understand that some people like to keep their Facebook timelines private and limited to real-life friends and family. Other people are an open book and accept requests from just about anyone. The key is not to take it personally if someone doesn’t accept your friend request. (Sometimes easier said than done.)

Social media is interesting because, on one hand, it’s a public forum where you can be heard by thousands. On the other hand, it’s a private place where you can establish your own space and determine who you interact with. We suspect that your idea of how to relate with others will change as you become more comfortable interacting on Facebook and other social media platforms.

We suggest starting slowly and building a group of Facebook friends you know and are comfortable with, and then expanding your community as you become more familiar with Facebook (and possibly other social media). In particular, pay attention to your privacy settings (see Chapter 3 of this minibook) and how and what you share in your status updates (see Book II, Chapter 2).

Searching for people you know When you first set up your account with Facebook, it walks you through finding friends who may already be on Facebook. The platform allows you to use your existing e-mail contacts to see whether any of those e-mail addresses are registered with accounts on Facebook and then lets you send a friend request to people you know. (See the previous section “Completing step 1: Finding friends. ”) If you skipped that step or decided to wait to find friends later, that’s not a problem. You can find friends in several ways:

✦ Check out Facebook’s suggestions. When you visit your personal time-line (by clicking your name or profile image anywhere in Facebook), click the Friends link. To the right of the profile picture, click the +Find Friends button to see a list of people Facebook thinks you may know. (When you first sign up for Facebook, a Find Friends link appears in the Facebook navigation but will eventually disappear.) Facebook draws this list from accounts that have shared information similar to your own (for example, hometown, education, or mutual friends). When you click the +Find Friends button, the People You May Know page appears, as shown in Figure 2-1. If you see someone you’d like to connect with, Book I click the 1+ Add Friend button. (If you have pending friend requests, you Chapter 2 can confirm or delete the request.)

Figure 2-1: Facebook suggests friends you can connect with. You may also see friend suggestions from Facebook on the right side of your news feed page.

✦ Use Facebook’s list features. Lists are a handy way to keep groups of friends together so you can see their updates any time you like. Facebook has a few lists it creates for you based on information you shared when