The strange ways of life in a Facebook world

Ha, LinkedIn works in a similar way. When I make (infrequent) additions to my LinkedIn profile, I get e-mails from connections congratulating me on a job change or other achievement. Fortunately, a professional profile contains less personal information than something like Facebook.

People are really pathetic.

Why waste time making friends on a computer when you can be doing fun things like getting rich? Facebook and other online "coomunities" only exist to collect data to sell mindless consumers useless products. But since people will continue to make "friends" online, I support the media companies. I hope they make billions off of the lemmings who join these websites.

Uh, Yadgyu, by posting a comment here you are wasting your time participating in the online community that is the Curious Capitalist. Or have you found some brilliant way to get rich while doing so?

(By all means keep commenting, though.)

Of course I am rich, Justin.

Most bloggers and blog commentors are either rich people or are friends and family to rich people. Our access to millions and millions of dollars allow us to waste time on the internet giving baseless opinions on issues that affect less fortunate people. We then use this data to manufacture and market products to those same people. I take it that your net worth is at least $75 million.

only $7.5m actually, but then I'm new.

it's not the only stand to charge whether it's rish or poor.

i don't think it's important for exact No,anyway we should pay more attention to what we need and what we get

The other strange Facebook question is where do you draw the line between friend and not friend?

I have thought about this because I inadvertently added YOU as a friend on facebook. Apart from reading your column semi-regularly our only relationship is a brief email exchange after a previous comment i left here.

When i joined facebook (very recently), it offered to search my address book and let me know who i knew was already online that i knew. Despite making an effort to sift out tenuous connections from actual friends and colleagues, it was a long list and a few grey ones filtered through - including you.

I find there is something vaguely voyeuristic about knowing that you have just joined the " Foreign Correspondents Club of Facebook" and i am not sure you want me to know this. I am also not sure whether you are following my tribulations of me rescheduling my trip to Thailand or my fledging Australian television career - but i am sure it is equally irrelevant to you!

This is a whole new space i find myself navigating!

I, for one, am fascinated by your fledgling Australian television career.

I joined Facebook to try and get in touch with old friends from high school. It didn't take long for me to figure out that there was a reason why I wasn't in contact with those people to begin with; we really don't have much in common. Still, although I never really have any reason to send messages to those fringe people in my contact list, it somehow feels good to know that I could if I wanted to.

how weird... she and i have the same name....