A Interesting Experiment
 

Now I know there will be very different opinions on this but hear me out.

I have created a fake account on facebook to conduct a social experiment if you wish to call it that, basically I have sent out numerous friend requests and seeing who accepts and who don't respond at all those who do accept I try to start a conversation with them after a while I send them a message saying (I also send this message even if the don't pick up the conversation)

"May I ask why you accepted the friend request I sent you even though clearly we have never met as this is a fake account and now I have access to all your photos, posts, details. Please do not be alarmed as I shall not use or abuse any of those I am just wishing to know why you accepted the friend request. Thank you."

Most of the time I never hear back from them ~80% of those who do talk back send abusive messages ~10% continue normal conversation and the last ~10% give their reasoning.

All of this is a very slow process as people block and report me (Preventing any friend requests for a few days). I am gathering quite interesting data but I'm not going to release any information until I can make some sort of essay out of it.

Thank you for reading all of this, I would like to hear your opinions on this.
(And yes I am creating an essay for f̶u̶n̶ science)

dont you have anything better to do?

I have a hard time a accepting people. I actually hide posts/pictures that only certain groups of friends can view. My boss makes me do that. Plus I've have my nosy aunt added, so I have her set to only see my profile picture and regular stuff. :P

Interesting.
Maybe you're the weird stalker who's been commenting all over my page before I even added them as a friend. xD "has 2 mutual friends".
LOL Kidding, but it is a strange thing.
How'd you get the idea for this?
Just bored or something? :P

Hmm, I have always wondered why people accept someone they do not even know, knowing full well they will never speak to them... and how would you know if they are some kind of creepy ax murderer or something??

I think this is quite a brilliant experiment! I am really interested to see what you come up with!

I have actually recently gone through my Facebook and deleted anyone I either: Do not know personally, or people who I do know, and just don't like! haha. My friends list consists of mostly family, close friends... but largely of celebrities. XD

Please share your findings, it is very interesting to me!! =)

I find that interesting that some people would get so hostile when someone is really just trying to help them.. I guess it's just THAT big of an injustice to be made to realize your mistakes.

Super cool experiment though.. gives me more reason to never go on Facebook ever. [heart]

Nope, I am a very boring person who likes doing somewhat strange things

I did this because there seems to be a lot of media attention around online social site (Mainly facebook) and most of the time there are different views and not much actual information and stats. And it's the holidays and I'm bored

Will do :D

I did a similar things just to see if people would actually add someone they do not know. Sure enough most people do. I don't understand why people add people they don't know. If you don't talk to them then why add them?

My sister is all about adding random people.. It really bothers me because she's only 11. My parents and I are pretty good about telling her to delete pictures/location updates though. She uses it to complain about homework and play Sims Social.

Also Slightly off-topic:
I remember two years ago, we did a social experiment where my boyfriend and I both switched our relationship status of Facebook to "single", turned off our phones, then spend the day at Worlds of Fun. When we came back, there was so many emails/texts of people freaking out and asking what happened. I honestly didn't think anyone would care, but it was surprising to see what some of my friends thought. And his friends either hit on me or called me a bitch. So that was cool...

I only add people I've at least met in real life, but I'm regretting not being more strict since now I have tons of "friends" who really are just one-time acquaintances. [sweat] I need to tidy things up one of these days.

That said, my Facebook page doesn't really have much on it that I'd consider embarrassing save for a few pictures I'm tagged in. I don't want my information to be completely public, but I'm not bothered that friends and acquaintances whom I don't really know have access.

I've had ~30 people on my facebook since I've had it. I've deleted some people, added new ones, but I still hover around 30ish.

Within the last couple of months I have added some friends of friends, but I set their visibility to virtually nothing. I also do this for people I'm not particularly fond of but added because of social/familial obligation. The only reason I added the friends of friends is because I run my own business, and most of my orders and commissions come in through my network of family and friends.

A lot of these people are those that have a ton of friends. So when they 'like' something of mine, it draws interest and I am able to further market without actually trying. Basically, free publicity.

I have never accepted random friends requests.

Though I do find your experiment interesting, I'd probably find a better way to initiate the conversation. Your current opening line comes off as unintentionally hostile/malicious.

Dis whai I no have FB. :I

One of my close friends told me I should also try another fake account but this time a female and see if results are different, This would be really interesting to find how people react to different gender people who they don't even know.

I accept pretty much anyone that adds me on Facebook. I don't put anything on Facebook that I would hate other people to know. It's a social networking site on the internet, I don't plaster my entire life across it like some people. Any information you share you have to be prepared for other people to find it out.

I've hovered around 36 or so friends on facebook since I got it. And. Well. Most of them are blocked so that I don't see their posts because they irritate the shit out of me. They're one time high school comrades most of them, and they just post about how high they were last night or how much they hate somebody, or how much their life sucks. I hate facebook, truly do, but the fact remains that I have a Sims Social account on there with a high score of 500,000 and I can't delete it. XD Plus, I keep holding out that there are people I will need to add there in the future for contact.

I have never accepted a request from someone I don't know, though. And I never will. Period. I've had enough of asshole internet anons.

Here is just an example of one of the messages I sent I have blocked out my name and his name and picture.http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/315/exampleod.png

I do understand why people would get defensive but I don't see why people would have to sound so abusive. Cause that answer is WAY over the top. People are just rude.

Defensive I understand because any time someone actively involves someone else in an experiment without that person's knowledge or consent it's inherently kind of a jerky thing to do. (I think the message you sent them isn't jerky or anything and is actually worded very nicely and probably as best it can be.) That being said, I have HUGE issues with Facebook and privacy and the way people use Facebook and the way Facebook uses people, and if someone's eyes can be opened just a little to the issues that are there, then that is good.

I also definitely don't agree with the sentiment of - well don't you have anything better to do. Well... the same could be said about playing games on Menewsha, or watching TV, or whatever. And actually the sentiment applies better to those then it does to this, because this experiment isn't just a time waster. It's based on an intelligent, insightful look at some issues that today's society is facing. Just because most of us wouldn't do anything about those issues in this way doesn't mean it's inherently silly to do.

Females get A LOT more attention than males. I've lived life as both female and male and by far the female part of me got a ton more attention.

I also should add that people tend to be a lot nicer to someone they think is female as a whole too.

I love this idea! I think there's definite essay material in people's response to not just strangers on facebook but on their reaction to being told the truth. Most people like to consider themselves smart, that they already know how to protect themselves. So they tend to ignore what information is out there about protecting oneself in social networks. So they become angry at being proved wrong.

What Ido think would help is explaining that you are conducting a experiment with the information.

That's a clever experiment... do share your final findings.

You should put any funny ones you find on failbook [lol]

@diaveborn Thank you for your thoughts, I understand what your saying I'm just trying to fill up my spare time which could help many people in the long run bring their attention to how easy it is to create a fake account and get heaps of peoples information, but yes it is rude that I am doing this but I am just bringing to their attention that I could do bad things but I am not I am teaching them a lesson. Again thank you for your thoughts it's much appreciated.

Hmm, I find this experiment really interesting. I've always wondered why people add strangers even though they'll probably never talk to them ever. (perhaps it's because of wanting to increase their friend count?)

I accept most people, but that's only because I never actually use Facebook. I log on maybe once or twice a month, but I'll only play tetris. [lol]

I have made another two accounts to further results and research and to find different reactions, I now have three fake accounts on Facebook; Male, Female and a really obviously fake account (A movie character)