It began in early November. I was curious if there was a maximum number of friends and if so, what was the limit? It turns out Facebook limits you to 5,000 friends. This is interesting because the average user only has about 200 friends. Interestingly, that is very close to the Dunbar number, which says that the average person can maintain stable relationships with about 150 people.
I used very little discretion and simply friended every suggestion in the order I got them until I hit the limit. Here's what I learned: there are a lot of scammers, impostors, and suckers on Facebook. The most common scams involve sex or pornography, though a great deal of porn is given away as free samples. So yeah, if you want strangers to message you with pornographic images or videos, just friend a bunch of random young women. Or rather, profiles that have pictures of young women.
There are many celebrity impersonators, which I found amusing. The lie itself is audacious, but the real entertainment comes from the gullible people who think they actually have a famous friend. It's just a big case of Santa Claus for adults.
There are better aspects. I have friended people from all over the world and now have a francophone pen pal, among others. Had I been more selective, I could have gotten a pen pal of just about any language.
Oh, if someone uses the word "alaye", it means: "I am a scammer, so if you are also a scammer, let's stop wasting time with each other". So there is a kind of honor among thieves after all.
My Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=25833503
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