Friend Me, Link Me, Recommend Me, Love Me ... I'm Starting to Hate You All

—Written by Brad Kava

So far this week strangers have said I'm a good storyteller, a good journalist, a good proofreader, a good grant writer (say what?). 

That's LinkedIn's strategy to get us more involved. People recommend you for things. It's brilliant to a point. Then, it gets plain annoying. Everyone is recommending everyone until it all means nothing. I've never written a grant in my life. 

On Facebook my friend requests have grown exponentially. Trouble is, I don't know any of them. I ponder each request. Take it or not?

Usually, I take it just because most of the friends I do have make such interesting posts and keep me informed about things I wouldn't otherwise know. And some friends of friends have often turned out good and morphed from the virtual world into real, actual, living friends. 

And I've gotten news from some friends and groups on Facebook, even if when I tried to report what they said, they claimed I was violating their privacy. Say what? Privacy on social media?  Lest you think there is any privacy there, read this list of words the government uses to monitor what you write in case you have terrorist tendencies.

I've even had readers of my old media column in some long lost newspaper friend me. Those flattered me.

But then, some of these friendsters (remember Friendster?) turned out to be scam artists, or worse, hookers. One "friend" asked me to the Philippines to help raise her kids. She didn't care how old I was. Say what? Now, which friend of a friend of a friend of a friend was she?

Just this minute I had another one offer me a free gift of an electric guitar, wallet or mag lite if I linked Patch to her Jungle Juice site. Yeah, right. And I've got a lot of money in Nigeria waiting for me.

Where do you set your boundaries on this unyielding and unwieldy world of social networking? 

Do you take all requests? Do you limit them to those you really know? Have these sites helped you get jobs or learn things? What's your advice to Patch readers?