Reaching out to people you knew in the past on FB

[Cehrabehra]

I have reached out and been reached out to... I had one person who contacted me that I wondered why - since we were acquaintances at best in high school... but I always feel really awkward about contacting people because who knows how they feel about it... one person's long lost friend is another person's kooky stalker lol

I contacted an old roommate and she didn't say anything, she blocked me... but she was always a bit of a loose screw and she probably did me a favor. I imagine she's quite the unhappy cheating alcoholic by now, assuming she'd stayed on course. But I'm a complete and total nostalgic and well, I would have liked to have been proven wrong in that. Another friend who was in my wedding I found her on FB but she doesn't accept messages from people not on her list and so there's no way for me to contact her and that's a major bummer. I'd like to think she'd be receptive to a reconnection.

I tend to reach out via message moreso than requesting friend status. Feel it out first.

 

[phoenixgirl]

When I first joined FB in 2007 I was friend-request happy and just requested and accepted everyone I recognized (and maybe a few high school classmates that I didn't). After one of those, "Oh, I didn't realize *you* were reading all my stuff" experiences with a friend of DH's, I got a little more circumspect. I went from 450 to about 300 friends. I figured if I wouldn't recognize and/or talk to you if we passed on the street, then why are we FB friends? The only exception is my former students. They all requested me because I thought it was weird for your former teacher to reach out to you, and only after they graduated, so I tried to keep the line professional, but now I have FB "friends" who are students I taught 5 or more years ago who probably don't even remember we're friends. They all seem to have 1,000 FB friends, no joke. But it just seems mean to go around deleting old students, so I keep them. I just set my privacy so they're not privy to all the stuff I want my close friends to see.

I'm really glad that FB has afforded me the opportunity to reconnect with some long lost friends, but I also try to keep on top of my privacy settings and my friend list so I'm not just putting it all out there. My husband is always saying, "How did so and so know we're having a girl? How did so and so know we're buying a rental house?" Hello, it's because it's on FB. Just because you're thinking of your 20 BFFs when you post stuff doesn't mean the other 580 of your friends can't see it too.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I have to say I respect those who are comfortable only having like 30 friends, who are true friends, rather than hundreds. One of my current friends has had a FB account for a few years and I saw she only has a small group!

I'm considering doing a mass deletion. I have removed people in the past and rather awkwardly, one contacted me and asked why, and another got all huffy and then later sent me a new request (that person's account is actually used by another family member to spy on me! This my DH told me about )