When you don't want to be Facebook friends

I delete them.

I just ignore them. There are so many social networking sites that it is too much work to set up several profiles just to connect with these people. Plus, it is true, you get requests from odd corners of the universe. Most were from family & friends, but then I did start getting requests at work, probably people who want to kiss my boss' derriere. I ignore the 'requests'; no one ever asks if I got their requests, so I've never had to defend my ignoring the requests. People probably just assume you are too busy.

I do not respond to friend request of people i do not want to have access to my FB page.  I have also had to limit the requests of applications from some people because they go overboard with the amount of application request they send.  I sometimes question peoples motives in using FB - are they looking for social engagement or just killing time?

Does anyone over the age of 16 actually worry about how to deal with unwanted friend requests?  This is an issue for Junior Highschool kids.  Just ignore em or delete them.  If you want to be cool about it send them a message that says no thanks.  I'm not sure why anyone would have an issue with something like this.

Facebook has a feature where you can put people in groups.  I have one group for aquaintances, with settings that they can't see any of my albums except for the profile album.  Friend from elementary school?  Added to list.  They don't have to know all the private details of my life, just the basic wall and gift apps.  The control of privacy on Facebook is very customizable.

It's not too hard to set limits, as I've discovered.  People I didn't like in high school, I just ignore.  Two guys I have ended up Blocking after 3-4 attempts at "friending" me; I just got sick of their requests.  One friend I "unfriended" because he was being so obnoxious on Facebook--writing comments and posting to my Wall stuff that I didn't necessarily want 90 other people to see.  He's a pain in the butt in real life, and he's a pain online!  Once he realized I had dropped him, he apologized and asked to be "friended" back.  I told him I'd do it but that he needed to behave better since Facebook is very public, and that I had no qualms about dropping him off Facebook again.

I have two Friends lists:  the standard Friends one, and one I set up called "Acquaintances."  The latter one is where I put people who friend me that I haven't spoken to or seen in ages, but that I don't necessarily dislike.  I just don't want them to see all my more personal details, like photos of me and my children, my Wall, where I live, and my Personal Interests.

Simple: I just delete my account. I have no use for "social network" websites.

When someone adds me that I do not want to be "friends" with I first ignore...then if they request again I will add, this will show up to them that we are now friends. Then I will delete them right away. Most will forget that they even added me after the reminder disapears from their screen. If they confront me about it later, in person, I claim to have never got the request and suggest a computer glitch. This has worked EXTREAMLY well so far. I'm kind of a Facebook jerk I suppose.

this is a dumb article. first of all you can ignore them. secondly, if someone is adding you from 25 years ago, its not likely that they want to be friends now, but most likely that they just want to see what you're up to, and how things turned out for you. Its a little bit like classmates.com. even though I know 98% of people on my 'fbook' I only communicate with 25% or LESS. Simple enough if you never really met the person I always send 'Hi, saw your fren request, just wondering if we have met before?'

I usually ignore them and sometimes i block them.

When I get an unusual friend request (i.e. someone I don't know, someone I never liked, someone I don't recognize, or someone I know but not well), I tend to investigate first. I look at their profile and their pictures and see if anything is familiar. If not, I ignore it. I don't "delete" it until maybe a few months later after they forget about me...if you delete it too soon, you can seriously piss people off. And its never a good idea to piss people off like that 'cause they can start stalking you, spreading stuff about you, etc. Trust me, I've been through the cyber-bullying and real life harassment that miffing someone can cause...its not fun.

I say SMEG OFF!!!!

My big problem is the expectation of adding someone such as my girlfriend's long lost brother who has magically reappeared in her life recently.  I don't like him because of the way he treats my gf in real life (and neither does she!) but knowing that I have to see him at family functions in the future and that he'll give me hell if I don't add him are no longer cyber issues.  So after multiple requests (and subsequential "Ignores") I finally added him, but restricted what he can do or see on my FB to nearly nothing.  Any mis-step on his part and he's gone from my friend list. 

Some people are all about the number of friends they have, and you are just another number.  I mean who has 400 friends?  When I first got on FB I reconnected with an acquaintance from high school, and it had a domino effect.  In the beginning there was a flurry of activity back and forth, but now I hardly look at these profiles, and I doubt they look at mine.  I have become much more selective and now ignore those people I hardly knew.  

I just deny thier request, then block them from seeing my profile.

I don't judge, I like people, I am a pretty open person so anyone can be my friend anytime!  I just control myself and my actions that pop up on the mini-feed.  I also don't really care too much if someone ignores a friend request from me, they are free to be who they are!

People I don't know usually get ignored. For me facebook is not about meeting people I have never laid eyes on. It is about keeping in touch with those I know who have scattered across the globe. I only wish that there were a button that said "No Thanks" for the friend request deal. For some people, especially those old high school aquaintences who just WILL NOT GO AWAY the ignore button does not seem to do the trick. And the Block options doesn't seem to have one that says "Annoying me with repeated unsolicited friend requests"

I have a rule....I only accept friend requests from people who I would actually meet for a drink if they were in town. If we would have absolutely nothing to talk about, then is that really someone to be in touch with?

I accept everyone who gives me a request; I want to come off as an overly friendly, easygoing guy who never has the tendency to be one's enemy first.

Rarely do I ever get requests from people I've never seen nor heard about before so it's not an issue right now. Mostly it is people whom I've met and known from before. Most of my personal information on my profile is something I don't mind showing to the public; I'm sure to keep some pretty private material from showing there.

After I gain 500 friends, I'll do a "Passive" friend-pruning" routine by posting blogs (called "Facebook Notes") about myself that some narrow-minded individuals will remove me for. If they don't like me for the way I am, enough to remove me from their list, then I'll be fine with that; there probably wouldn't have been much benefit in having a connection with them anyway.

Personally, I don't use social networking sites.  I don't want my personal, intimate, and private information released for all to see.  Even if they are supposedly "secure", I know as a software engineer, that any site can be hacked into and information obtained.  It is only a matter of time.  As far as making contact with individuals who wish to renew a friendship with me that has either died or we had parted company, I don't look back and I don't reopen them.  If someone like this attempts contact with me, I simply write them an e-mail requesting them not to write me.   Also when people send me e-mails to join "XYZ" social site, I never open them and simply delete them.   I am not desperate for friends.   In my view, people who use these sites are very needy attention-seekers and also unable to build a healthy, meaningful, and fulfilling face-to-face social life offline.  I work enough all day on computers -- I don't want my life after work to be an artificial one built online.  Even the site "Second Life" is a place where people can lie and fantasize about what they dream of becoming, but in reality, present a false facade to other people.   On any social networking site you cannot really tell if the person you are speaking with is truly who they say they are.   It is very easy to hide in these websites and not psychologically healthy.   Thank you.

I had a really awkward situation recently where someone from grade school contacted me who I literally haven't seen in 30 years!  I know NOTHING about this woman's life and our last conversation probably had to do with recess!  I thanked her for reaching out and said that I hoped she was doing well, but I respectfully declined her friend request because I wanted to limit my network to current friends and colleagues.  She seemed fine with that.  Then I got an invitation from someone I was actually good friends with all through junior high school and I was interested to see what he's been up to, so I accepted.  Turns out one of his Facebook friends is...guess who...the same girl from grade school.  Now I felt awkward because I turned her down but accepted the other person's request, which she would no doubt find out!  Not wanting to seem like a complete jerk, I caved in and sent her a new friend request explaining that I decided to expand my network.  She was gracious and gladly accepted.  So I guess I'll get a glimpse into her new life,and she'll get a glimpse into mine.  It's not the biggest deal, just a bit uncomfortable.  In the future I plan to be more careful and stick to my guns!

I don't have a Facebook page, or any other sort of page. I don't want my life out there. There are plenty of people I would prefer to just not ever have to deal with ever again. My friends and family and I have all the info we need to get in touch with each other. I'm under a lot of pressure professionally to set up a Facebook page or a LinkedIn page, but I am refusing to cave. I honestly do not get the appeal. It's kind of like those annoying mass-produced letters people that you haven't talked to for years insist on sending out at Christmas. If you really don't have anything to say for that long, then why the ridiculous letter? Like I said, I just don't get it. I'm wondering right now why I'm even bothering to post this. Guess I just want to present a different point of view. There are a LOT more people who don't have a Facebook page than there are that do...

Personally, I just ignore requests I don't want to honor.  No one seems to take it too personally; a lot of the time it's just that people want to see what everyone is up to and this is a cheap, expedient way to do it.

And for those of you saying 'this is a stupid article, who cares, etc.', why did you take the time to post a response?  (BTW, those of you calling the article 'retarded' because 'it's something for junior high kids', if you've grown past junior high yourselves you'd be able to come up with something less sophomoric than 'retarded' to describe something besides a person with a mental deficiency.)

so why to create a facebook or myspace if they are both "pro-friends" networking?! not to mention there is that question "why are you here for" many people say they are there for "friends" and when i, for example, want to make some friends, they reject or ignore the request!! i guess you know what is going on with your friends, so why to look at their profile, i thought the idea of such pages was to get new friends! so stupid!

I delete the ones from strangers and from people I don't know well. I like keeping in touch with my current friends and family but why friend someone if you aren't particularly interested in thier lives?