The article kindly submitted here shows some interesting examples of assumptions not working right in social network algorithms. Certainly I prefer a narrower rather than a broader sampling in my Facebook homepage feed of posts that have reached the home page of one or another of my more than 700 (!) Facebook friends.
But I do like the "friends of friends" reach for one kind of purpose. By default, posts I post to my own wall are set for "friends only," and I have curated (trimmed) my friends list a few times to make sure it only reaches actual friends. (I am older than most Hacker News participants, and have lived in more than one place, and perhaps that's why 700 friends, not all of whom are active on Facebook, doesn't seem completely excessive.) When I see a new notice, often here on Hacker News, about a security breach in some commonly used online service or software product, I will often share the link about that with "friends of friends," precisely so that the personal information of my direct friends will be at less risk of leaking out through lax security practices on the part of their other friends. I like to keep my extended circle up-to-date on sound online privacy practices, so that my inner circle can surf and discuss with less hassle from spammers and other criminals.
> I am older than most Hacker News participants, and have lived in more than one place, and perhaps that's why 700 friends, not all of whom are active on Facebook, doesn't seem completely excessive.
People younger than me routinely have hundreds or thousands of facebook friends (I have 28, and could easily curate it down). To me it's an introversion / extraversion phenomenon, not an age or mobility one.
Your comment raises the interesting question of what the distribution of number of Facebook friends is among REAL users of Facebook counting other REAL users as friends, and how the distribution changes for various user characteristics. I have not seen good data on that.
But I do like the "friends of friends" reach for one kind of purpose. By default, posts I post to my own wall are set for "friends only," and I have curated (trimmed) my friends list a few times to make sure it only reaches actual friends. (I am older than most Hacker News participants, and have lived in more than one place, and perhaps that's why 700 friends, not all of whom are active on Facebook, doesn't seem completely excessive.) When I see a new notice, often here on Hacker News, about a security breach in some commonly used online service or software product, I will often share the link about that with "friends of friends," precisely so that the personal information of my direct friends will be at less risk of leaking out through lax security practices on the part of their other friends. I like to keep my extended circle up-to-date on sound online privacy practices, so that my inner circle can surf and discuss with less hassle from spammers and other criminals.