Is Facebook Trying To Get You To Friend Your One-Night Stands?

Thanks to Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other forms of social media, people are connecting in a way they’ve never connected before. Long lost friends are finding each other after so many years. Family members that live many miles, and many days away from each other are able to catch up. People are even able to consult friends’ opinions on media, promote a cause, or even work together towards personal goals. As a matter of fact, the Inquisitr recently reported that Facebook’s creator, Mark Zuckerberg, invited over 30 million Facebook users to join him in a book club, challenging them all to read a book every two weeks.

In short, we can all get behind the positives that social media has given us. However, with all the pros, there are cons. With that in mind, Facebook is supposedly suggesting its users to friend certain people that many users may never want to see again. Why? These suggested friends are turning out to be their one-night stands.

That’s right. Facebook is suggesting the people you’ve shagged it up with after having one too many Tequila shots to be your friend. According to an exclusive article by Noah Michelson of the Huffington Post, he recounts how he scrolled through his “People You May Know” box. He enjoys bumping into good friends from his past or meeting strangers he might want to have as a part of his future. That all changed when the following happened.

“And then everything changed and all of a sudden I noticed that my ‘People You May Know’ box was overrun with a decade’s worth of guys that I’ve dated or hooked up with and then promptly forgot about (or actively took great pains to avoid).”

The people Noah Michelson describes as his “one-night stands” are of course horror stories for him. Therefore, it is understandable why Noah would want to find a way to make it stop. Such a task may be far more difficult to accomplish since Facebook’s algorithms seem to be more chaotic than search engine optimization. Let’s not forget that Facebook’s customer service can be a bit shoddy at times too.

So the question everyone is asking is how Facebook is finding a user’s one-night stands for friend suggestions? The answer lies in the Facebook app on cell phones. According to Gawker, the Facebook app will sync with contacts on a phone. At times, people may be hanging out in a bar to pick up some meat for the night and within the communal exchange of words, phone numbers are given or handed out. This is how Facebook is able to know your one-night stands. It should also be noted this isn’t illegal. When you download the Facebook app, it comes with certain warnings about accessing info on your phone right before the download is initiated. If you still agree to download, you have given Facebook permission to do this.

At this moment, it is unconfirmed if this social media phenomenon happens to everyone. However, commenters from both sources testify to variations of the smartphone/Facebook sync dilemma. Now that you know it is plausible, are you going to be more careful with whose numbers you have on your phone or the apps that you use?

[Images via Bing]