One of the things I find interesting about Facebook are the connections it uncovers when it suggests friends. I notice this when I periodically scan the list of suggested “friends” to see if it actually found any real-life friends. In doing this, I often discover that my circles of friends intersect in all sorts of strange ways:
- Example #1: Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller. Rabbi Hochberg-Miller is a rabbi out at Temple Beth Torah in Ventura, who I’ve met a couple of times when I’ve been to her congregation. Not surprisingly, she’s friends with my cousins that live in Ventura, and some of the rabbis that I know. But, surprise-surprise, she’s also a friend of some family friends in St. Louis. How they know her, I have no idea.
- Example #2: Mark Kaplan. Mark is a regular director out at REP East in Saugus. We’re subscribers there and have grown to be friends with the theatre’s leadership, so it is no surprise that Mark was suggested based on the theatre folk. But he’s also friends with a loads and loads (try over a dozen) people I know from camp. Now I’m wondering if I should know Mark from my years at camp.
- Example #3: There are a large number of people that are friends from Livejournal, most coming through my connections with Nicole and the various dance groups she’s been in. It turns out these folks have mutual friends with a friend from high school I recently connected with.
So what odd connections have you discovered through what Facebook suggests to you?
Music: Buffalo Springfield (Buffalo Springfield): Bluebird
