20% of Your Facebook Friends Are Strangers

60% are just acquaintances, study finds
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 14, 2011 8:37 AM CST
20% of Your Facebook Friends Are Strangers
In this file photo taken April 21, 2010, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers an address in San Francisco.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

A fifth of your Facebook friends are people you don’t even know—and three-fifths are just acquaintances, a study finds. The fact that only 20% of your friends are your actual friends may not come as a surprise to the average Facebook user, notes AllFacebook.com, but it’s a fact worth remembering: After all, the more unfamiliar friends you have, the greater your risk of getting malware and spam. Why keep so many so-called friends? 54% of responders to the survey, conducted by GoodMobilePhones, cited politeness, while 34% said they wanted to look more popular. (More Facebook stories.)

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