Thursday, June 11, 2009

Freaky Shit

As if I needed another reason to boycott the Facebook.

I just got a recommendation to friend the guy from this fateful date. Let's just note that we (as far as I was aware) knew no person in common and we have not spoken since that night. I kind of want to kill myself if the world is this small. Seriously.

8 comments:

Flavia said...

I think Fb is altering its algorithms--I've suddenly had people show up with whom I have NO FRIENDS in common, but who are lingering somewhere in my gmail account.

Thus, a dude I had a disastrous fling with 18 mos. ago and haven't spoken to since. Thus, people I emailed with 2 or 3 times about sublets in my various fellowship locations (but didn't actually sublet from). Etc.

Freakish to see them. But just click the X and move on.

Maude said...

yes, i have had a similar experience. i keep getting a friend suggestion for a professor who was the chair of a search committee for a job i applied for this past year. but i keep getting the same ones over and over.

if he tries to friend you though, no biggie. deny him. or you can just block him and he can't look at you; you can't look at him. i blocked my ex-husband (just in case) and a bunch of people from my former employer.

flavia's right: click the x and move on. don't let it get you down.

New Kid on the Hallway said...

Me too! I keep getting suggestions for a woman who used to be a medieval historian and is now a lawyer, with whom I had one conversation (but a very nice one) two years ago when I was applying to law school. There is one person on my friend list with whom she might, possibly, conceivably be friends, but no other connection. Though Flavia's comment eases my freakout because I realize her e-mail is probably is my gmail somewhere. Still, a little freaky!

(I also get recs for random people I think are pseudonymous bloggers, but I can't match them to any pseudonyms...)

Historiann said...

Come, Crazy, come to the light! The social networking-free light!

Historiann.com

Anonymous said...

I get recs for random people, but when I look at our common friends I realize they must be pseudonymous bloggers. I just don't know who...

my word verification is "guesses" :)

Virginia S. Wood, Psy.D., Instructor said...

Don't freak. You get "recommendations" based on a number of things. For example, I have one--Sutton Pigeon--that keeps popping up because my birth name is Sutton. Of course I have no idea who this is (the picture is of an actual pigeon). "Recommendations" come from any match of any word from any of your interests, politics, etc. with anyone else's.

It's the direct request from the weirdos to "friend" them that you might worry about.

I had one once from this overwhelmingly HOT young man who'd photographed himself in an overwhelmingly underdressed pose. And I'm thinking WTF? Finally, out of curiousity, I went ahead and "friended" him just so I could get a look at his page and solve the mystery.

We had a "Fan of" page in common. Much duller than my fantasy that he was a gigolo trolling old ladies' pages for business!

life_of_a_fool said...

I've also been getting different "recommendations" than before. They almost all used to be high school (which is probably my largest concentration of interconnected people), now they're students, etc.

I would be a little freaked out to see an unwelcome ex-bf or former date show up though.

Notorious Ph.D. said...

In the first week I was on FB, I got a friend request from a guy, accompanied by the note: "Are you the same Notorious from X Middle School? The one we called "Moose"?"

Seriously.