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SALT LAKE CITY -- More than 175 million people across the planet are actively using the social Web site Facebook. But if you're thinking about joining, what are some of the unwritten rules of the site?
There are two basic kinds of Facebook users. There are the casual users like University of Utah student Josh Frank. He's only on about 30 minutes a day, so he wouldn't say he's addicted.
"Indeed not, no. It's more a form of communication," he said. I asked again to make sure he wasn't in denial, but he said, "Definitely not."
He's the kind of Facebook user that has no problem breaking up with his friends.
"Every few months I go over [my list of friends] and say, ‘I haven't talked to you in three years. Delete,'" he explained.
Then, you have the serious users; the hardcore addicts. The thousands of people who've joined one of more than 500 groups of people who say they're addicted to Facebook. Internal numbers show more than 3 billion minutes are spent on the social media site every day.
Don't get offended if they don't want to be your friend
One rule of Facebook, he says, is that people should not get too upset if someone rejects their friend request. Different people use the site for keeping track of different people.
"For some people, it's all their close friends and family, or it's all their close friends, or like my mom, it's immediate family. So keep in mind they have their own strategy for doing it. Don't take it personally. It's not real life," Stay said.
Another rule is to let people know why you may reject their friend request, or their cause invitation, or one of the many notes your friends ask you to copy, paste, fill in with your own answers then resubmit.
"Send them a private message and tell them very privately that you appreciate them thinking of you, but at the same time, you're getting a lot of those and it's not the type of thing you like to participate in," he suggested.
Keeping some of your information hidden
Some people say they reject new friends they may not know very well because they don't want strangers looking at their personal information. Stay says you can add new friends and limit what they can see.
"In the upper right hand corner of Facebook, there's a little ‘Settings' link. If you mouse over that, there is a ‘Privacy Settings' in the little drop-down [menu]. Click on ‘Privacy Settings' and see what people are able to see about you," he said.
Stay says you can arrange your friends into groups, determining who can see what. He says if you want to break up with people on the site, it can be fun at times. He once earned a voucher for a free hamburger for clearing out 10 of his "friends."
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
