Forgotten friends

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

You may be interested by the discussion I had this morning with a member of another network. It is directly related to communication within networks.

The question was :
ARE YOU MY FRIEND ?

I have 378 friends.
Am I the only one feeling the weight and noticing the dilution of our social networks?
I have no idea if you are my friend or if I am yours. I have no idea of what it all really means, but I will continue to accept all friend requests - and have added some myself. What are people’s expectations for the relationship? More importantly, do I have to do anything to nurture the relationship if I say yes to your friend request?
I need to be better at networking all around, so I suppose I’ll just have to put more effort into i, but can social networking lead to social action?
If not, if you feel you're not my friend, or you don't want to network - or connect to me at any time - you are free to delete me! I can't find people I'm looking for among all my (empty) connections.. Something tells me I’m not the only one feeling like this.
Thanks.

My reply was :
Re: Are you my friend? It's up to you to decide

Thanks for your very clear message.
I use the "Friend" function as a mailing list when I want to forward an information related to my area of interest which is .......... I use it around twice a month depending opportunities.
If it can help you, feel free to delete. It is so easy to recreate it afterwards in case of a new opportunity. My profile is linked in all ........... related groups on ........... network.
Best regards

I received the following message by return mail :
Thank you. I will look closer at your site soon. Looks interesting!

AND YOURSELF :
WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOUR REPLY TO THAT QUESTION ?
WHAT OPINION DO YOU HAVE ON THE FINAL ANSWER ?
DOES IT HELP YOU TO ANALYSE YOUR OWN BEHAVIOUR WITHIN NETWORKS ?

Note : I replace my interest by ........... in the text above. It is not to make a secret : you have all visibility on my profile page. It is for maintaining a general purpose to this new discussion.

Pierre