What is the value of a friend on Facebook? Did you know there are some companies that will provide you with fake virtual online friends for price? I'm not sure what they are charging these days, maybe it's 10 for $10, and you get the 11th one free? That seems pretty silly doesn't it? Okay so let's talk about all these topics for second shall we?

Not long ago, someone mentioned to me after reading an article I'd written on this topic that he'd noticed an interesting trend in our society with regards to online "friends" on social networks. He stated; "The more acquaintances you can amass, the greater the chance you will have someone to turn to in need."

Now then, I understand the concept of amassing "friends" online to network and improve the chances of getting help in time of need. Maybe that's why so many people wish to be my friend? I hate to think that everyone contacting me "wants something" but alas that is the mentality of so many folks - they want a stimulus, food stamps, a new job, or some gift from the gods, such as the old fat mean-spirited lady who reads romance novels where an ultra-rich, good looking, muscular hunk rescues them from mundaneness. I just see this sort of nonsense as counter-productive and much akin to playing the lottery, after all if one amasses enough lottery tickets they are bound to eventually win? I see it all as petty, and quite telling of society's mentality.

Okay so, you might indeed see it differently, in fact, you might be all in when it comes to getting friends on Facebook or your other social networking websites. If that's your goal to amass the highest number of friends to surpass your other friends (real or imaginary), and therefore find self-validation, then go for it. Who am I to tell you what your life's goals should be? To each his own I say. Nevertheless, one could ask the question; is this even healthy for human societies, not just here the United States, but everywhere else in the world as well.

There are over 1 billion people on Facebook alone, and even if 10% of those people are make believe and bogus profiles that still leaves 900 million people and that is a large percentage of the Earth's population. Not only that, but Facebook is hardly the only social networking website online. Why not do a self-study, why not ask all your friends on your social networking site to help you with some important project that you have or to send you money. How many of those friends that you have would be so inclined to help you?

You probably haven't asked anyone for help so far on your social networking site, so this would be a new thing. Indeed, many individuals believe that amassing friends is a smart way to go in case these individual users are ever in need. Of course, accumulating friends in advance to ask them for something is not a very friendly thing to do, is it? What happened to self-reliance? I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Internet Social Networking. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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People should be concerned about how their friends use social media. Especially, if the users are interested in social privacy because the fact of the matter is that a friend can influence another person's social media privacy as much as the user themselves. This is a massive problem that everyone interested in social privacy should be aware of because the problem will become worse before it gets better.

The truth is that the social media systems will always do what benefits them before the users. They have to do this because they have to make money. A business that is interested in making money will never have their users' interests at heart first no matter what they might say.

Therefore, it is up to the user to defend their interests online. They must defend their privacy against the social media system and well meaning friends who use the social media systems. This is because the friends of the user can directly influence how much privacy a person has on the social media systems.

A well meaning friend is always trying to share their shared experience with another user. This makes them feel connected to the other user and helps the other user (most of the time) feel connected to them. However, this one action can be extremely dangerous.

The social media system is always engaged in collecting information about a user that they can use to sell to companies that want to sell that information to advertisers. Therefore, the information that a friend releases about a user will be gathered and categorized.

This means that a social media system will use that information to categorize the user and they will sell the space to advertise to that user. This means that the ads will be specifically targeted towards the interests of that person. All with no prior consent of the user or knowledge (on some of the social networks).

Therefore, a person who is careful about what information they post about his or herself can be dragged into advertising by their friends. They do not even have to say anything, if a person "tags" them in a post then the social media system is aware that the person might be interested in whatever subject that person was "tagged in".

This might mean that a person has a standing agreement with other people to not tag them in posts or updates. This is the best thing to do in most cases. This standing agreement will make it clear that the social media user does not like the social system collecting information about them and should limit the amount of information that the social system has about them.

In the end, it is on the user to make sure that their friends do not misuse the privilege of having them in their social network. A person who tells their friends that they do not want to be tagged in posts or updates gives his or herself the power to choose what information the social system has about them now and in the future.

Scott Buendia consults for Bizbuilt.com. All the views and tactics in this article are tactics and ideas of the author; they do not necessarily represent the ideals, beliefs, or trademarks of Bizbuilt.com. Visit his card on Bizbuilt here, https://www.bizbuilt.com/socialmediaprivacy.

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