AIBU to be gobsmacked at this re Facebook?

[NickRobinsonsloveslave]

I have been trying to get my act together for a whole week regarding a project I had to do for a Sociology course.
It entailed having to prove or disprove that people's interactions are moving away from the normal face to face stuff, with people just 'speaking' to other people on the internet, texting, emails etc.
Eventually decided to concentrate on Facebook, as that seems to be how most people communicate now. So I 'invented' a false person, added a profile photo of a very attractive woman, sent out some friend invites, but only to folk who would have attended a local school (not mine). I included a fair ratio of men and women, then sat back expecting nothing.
I was amazed to get, not only people accepting my friend requests, but other people asking me to be their friend!
I, as myself, know some of these people, but the persona I invented...name, age, photo, school, etc, is not real. Yet these people accepted me without question.
I am totally gobsmacked, just cannot believe that folk will just believe this stuff. Are they so desperate for friends they will accept anyone or what?
It has certainly given me an angle for my project, but what are these people thinking?

To prove your point you would have to try to add all of the same people with a different photo, in the same way people cahnge names to sound asian when testing racism.

You would also have to then find out what each person who added you used FB primarily for and how they managed their friends lists.

I don't know what level you are on but it isn't really 'research' that you are carrying out. It may be a good starting point to get you all interested but you are supposed to find flaws and gaps in your own method as well as highlighting ethical dilemmas.

"hosebeast"! Hahahaha! Forgot about that word! Used to use it incessantly! Waynes World wasn't it?

And btw, imo, your assignment sounds well dodge. Pretending to be someone else to trick people into being friends with you online? Seriously ropey. If someone reported you to fb they would block your account asap. For all they knew you might be some dodgy fat hairy bloke grooming young girls or something.

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest that people just blindly accepted your friend request. There are a lot of people on Facebook who'll accept anyone. I'm always astounded at the amount of people that have about 3,500 friends and nearly all of them are random strangers. And post all kinds of personal information about themselves to complete strangers.
Then there are other people who only accept people they actually know and like in real life.
If you'd have sent me a friend request I'd have deleted the request, no offence but I don't know you.
It's only sensible really.