9 January 2008
Total strangers are being accepted as friends on social networking sites with the aim of increasing profiles.
A study carried out by price comparison site moneysupermarket.com has highlighted that seven percent of users have no “real” friends in their friends list.
More than half the participants of the study have confessed to allowing up to three in ten people on their friends list when they are not proper friends. 84 per cent of people would allow an ex-partner as a friend and nine per cent have admitted that they use social networking sites to see what their ex’s are up to. However, some people (four in ten) are more cautious and do not add work colleagues to their list of friends.
Rob Barnes, head of broadband and mobiles at moneysupermarket.com, said:
Sites such as Facebook and MySpace can be a great way to keep in touch with people, and even to make new friends. However, it’s evident people use social networking sites as a way of increasing their social status. Regardless of whether they’re real or not; people want to be seen with as many friends as possible. The results also show that some people use these sites to look for a new love but more worryingly spying on ex-partners is also extremely popular.
Only 45 per cent of people asked said they use the sites to keep their friends up to date with what they have been doing and one in five people use social networking websites to find like minded people.
People are now becoming more apprehensive about using social networking sites, over a quarter (26 per cent) say they don’t trust them. Despite not trusting these sites 70 per cent of people don’t set the highest level of security on their social networking page.
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