@The Anti-Mother - We now have more tools, but yet, I feel we communicate less effectively.

“Top friends” is a perfect example and one that many many people seem happy to use without thinking about a basic principle its built on. By choosing your “Top Friends” you are effectively telling your social circle how you rank them. There is a thought process that goes in to choosing each friend, and many, if not most people will start at the top and think about what person in their lives offers most and place them closest to the start.

I have no doubt that applications like “Top Friends” will have weakened friendships as people who considered themselves as slightly higher up their peers social heirarchy will feel a little let down to see that Dave, Gordon, Paul, Sarah, Jim, Adam, Claire and Hubert are all on the list before them.

Facebook is useful though, if not to see if your first love turned out to be a terrible waste of flesh as opposed to rekindling the same lost romance. I doubt this happens all to often, more it just results in drunken “poking” sessions and people lying in bed next to their real time partners wondering “what if” after receiving yet another facebook “poke” from someone in need of a cheap flirt.