Last time I checked, I’ve only got 73 Facebook friends. And probably 75% of them are what I could categorized as “active network”. If you are not like me, and has more Facebook friends than I have, then you must be asking right now, just how many Facebook friends are we allowed to have?Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg attempts to answer that question via a blog post at the official Facebook blog. But before even going to the question she explained a more important concept first which is somehow related to answering the question. This is about Facebook users “active network”, which Sandberg described as:
Your active network consists of all the people with whom you stay up to date. What makes your active network different from other networks is the way you communicate with the people in it.
In short, any of your Facebook friends can belong to your Facebook “active network” even if you don’t communicate directly with them on Facebook.
Now what does this have to do with the question – “how many Facebook friends are we allowed to have.” Actually, Ms. Sandberg didn’t give a final answer. And this is close to admitting that there is really no guideline yet on how many friends are we allowed to have on Facebook.
And this lead us back to the reason why Ms. Sandberg explained about the “active network” in relation to the question. You can have as many friends as you want on Facebook, but the most important thing is whether those friends are actively communicating with you either directly or indirectly.
What good is having so many Facebook friends if you are not “actively” networking, socializing and networking with them?
Personally, I’d rather have 10 Facebook friends whom I chat and, exchange comments with, react to, and communicate with rather than 75 friends with more than half of them not knowing who I am.