Keep your friends close, and your Facebook friends closer

The idea of social media is to make you more connected to people around you, and yet research has found that most people are only "real friends" with a handful of others. Market research company Pure Profile recently conducted a survey for KFC, where 1003 Australian Facebook users were questioned about their connections with their Facebook 'friends'.

The survey found that almost a third saw less than five of their online friends in the past year because they were either too far apart, too busy or simply too lazy to set up a rendezvous. According to Facebook's official statistics, the average user has about 130 friends. However, it is not uncommon to find some users who have anywhere between 300 to over 1000 friends in their list. Sure, Facebook is a good way to stay in touch with the people who we have encountered at various points in our lives, but it is also not surprising news that people are not meeting every single one of their 300 or so 'friends'. Melbourne clinical psychologist Peter Kyriakoulos said the rules of friendship works differently in Facebook.

"We are naturally very social beings, and of course Facebook is a great way to stay in the loop with what is going on in other people's lives and catch up on gossip," he said. "A lot of it is to do with social acceptance, sometimes people see Facebook as a measure of how successful you are socially." This could lead to some detrimental effects to our real life relationships, Mr Kyriakoulos adds. The pressure to have our experiences validated by 'likes' or comments, can be so overwhelming and negatively impact self-esteem, potentially leading to anxiety and depression.

"If not a single person out of the hundreds of Facebook friends a person has comments on a significant event in your life you've made public, you might start feeling dejected," Mr Kyriakoulos says. It is no secret that using Facebook as a social resume can attract unwanted attention to your personal social life. With many users having hundreds of people with access to their Facebook account, there are bound to be some people you would not be very keen about letting see certain things in your online profile.

At best, some 'friends' might find that you take a liking to a certain uncool 80s synth-pop band. At worst, your boss who you added as a Facebook friend discovers that you have been complaining about him or her on company time.

Active Facebook user Katie Klonis, 22, says everyone she adds on Facebook is someone she knows or has met in real life. She comments that Facebook has made keeping in touch with high school friends and family members overseas much easier. Even so, with 567 Facebook friends to date, it is understandable that she is quite guarded about what information she puts up for the world to see.