Friends

Friends in the terms of social media, are other users that a person can choose to share they information with. A user’s friends will also see all new posts that they share. A person can few there friends usually though a friend list on their profile, which shows every friend they are connected to. Some social media platforms use a system of following. This way you can follow someone and see their posts, without having to have them see your posts. If a user wishes to not receive updates of a friend’s post, they can unfriend them by going to that user’s profile. Users have complete control over who they are friends with, which is another way they can shape their online personality.

Friends vs Followers
Social media platforms use many different ways of connecting users with their friends and family. Two of the most popular ways that websites do this, is through friends requests or following. A friend request requires both users to accept, and then both user will see everything that each user posts on their profile. The following system works differently since both parties don't have to follow each other in order to receive updates, when they post to their profile. This system works well for celebrities and people who have a lot of friends. A user can have millions of followers, but there feed won't be covered with spam from people they don't know very well. This system makes sure that the user can only see profile updates from users that they really care about.

The following system creates a thought pattern in people that might change the way they think. There is a ratio of followers that a user has to people that follow him. The more people that follow you, the more you seem like a popular person. This makes users want to gain as many followers as possible so people think that they have a lot of friends. To achieve this, some people even pay many for fake account to follow them.