So just why did you add me as a Friend?

I accepted your friend request. I didn’t recognise your name, nor your face, but I was excited. Were you an old school friend? A work colleague from years gone by? Or perhaps someone with an interesting story to share?

I looked forward to your status updates, to learn about your adventures and  be teased by your Bali holiday photos. I wanted to be your new friend on the other side of the city, on the other side of the country, on the other side of the world.

Then you started sending me Facebook Page suggestions, which is great; if the pages had been relevant to my needs. They weren’t. You suggested I become a fan of pages about cosmetics and clothing, even a page about yourself. I scratched my head.

I began to question why you “added” me in the first place. Was it so you could get to know someone new? So you could make a lifelong connection? So we could meet up for coffee and discuss changing the world? Or was it that you saw me as a number, as just another fan?

I soon guessed that you were the one behind the Pages you were touting. Why else would you send me recommendation after recommendation? You could see I hadn’t joined but still you persisted. You never bothered to send me a message, to write on my wall, to ask about my interests. No chat, no conversation, no attempt to get to know me. Did you assume I’d be interested in your Pages? Or is it that you really didn’t care?

What you may now realise is that I see your behaviour in the same way as I do a spammer. You know, the kind that assumes I need Viagra or Cialis or the $27 million locked in an overseas bank account. The spammer cares nothing about what I need or want, about what’s good for me. All they care for is themselves, their sale and their own petty existence. And I’ll bet that you’re really not like that.

So tell me, just why did you add me as a Friend? I really want to know.

Photo credit: