Could someone out there explain to me just one little thing? Are there any geeks tuned in? Here goes. How the hell does facebook generate friend suggestions? How, how, how? A whole screenful of thumbnail photos pop up and I won't know a single one of them! Usually. I have yet to send a friend request to any one of them. Well, okay, there was that one...which is a case in point as to how facebook thinks I might know someone and want to be their friend. Have patience, allow me to explain. There was that one best former girlfriend whose photo popped up. I frowned and clicked on the x to make her go away. And in that empty spot popped up another photo...of her boyfriend! I frowned and x'd him, too. This is where it gets really weird. In his place up popped my former sweetheart! That's when I put in a snarky friend request! A couple of days later, I withdrew it, but I was left with a deep sense of puzzlement over how facebook happened to choose those three people. All of whom belong to a closed chapter of my life. Unless chapters are never completely closed. And how all three popped up in the same space, one after the other, gave me a little chill. Maybe this is just testament to how interconnected all of us are, six degrees or fewer is all it takes to connect any two people on this planet. One thing I have learned. If you wait around long enough, and you pay attention, are observant and listen more than you talk sometimes, these mysteries are saliently transformed from unknowns into knowns. These acts of unveiling are sparks of learning that become memory. Enlightenment that elates or brings tears. An aha! moment, that for just a moment, makes all things, well, at least one thing, clear.
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One way that these suggestions are generated -- and this gets a giant BOO!!! with both thumbs DOWN from me -- is when you have Facebook check your email address book for friends. They suggest you to those friends that you opt NOT to send a friend request to. How fucked up is that? The other day I decided to check my tantraflower@gmail.com account to see who had a Facebook... some blog acquaintances have grown to be bonafide, real-life friends. There were so many that I just didn't bother looking through it to see who I wouldn't mind having access to my family members (my Facebook is family and offline friends only) I just canceled it out to deal with later. Well, I woke up the next morning to a friend request from somebody in my address book! I asked him how he found my Facebook and he told me that I was suggested to him!!! That really upset me. I don't want to be suggested to people that I would have sent an invitation to if I had wanted to friend them. I sent Facebook a message telling them so; I haven't heard anything back from them and I doubt I will, but I hope they fix this shit.
They also suggest friends of friends to you. Imagine my mother's horror to see my father's mug appear in her "suggestion box".
I wish they'd quit that shit. Seriously. If we want to friend somebody, we'll fucking look for them ourselves. Grrrr!!!!
That said, you may use my email address above if you'd like to friend me. I like you and you're not a crazy man. :)
I like you, too. :) And thanks for the explanation. None of those people have my current email address...at least I don't think that they do! Feels as though nothing is private any more.
I thought it was a "Quantum Thing".
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