This quote from danah boyd’s excellent Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites got me thinking:

While Friending is a social act, the actual collection of Friends and the display of Top Friends provides space for people to engage in identity performance.

Sorry friends, I’m only acting like the person I wish I was when I mark you as a friend. But is anyone measuring my actual friendships? I think Digg and Bloglines have the data, they’re just not doing anything with it. I’ve noticed that I keep Digging the stories of the same few people. Are they my “real” friends? On Bloglines I always read posts from Biz and Ev as soon as I see them. Then there’s another fifty blogs that I haven’t read in months. Bloglines knows the people that I actually like and the people that I’m just pretending to like.

Related Posts:

• More From Pathable
• Social Conference Software at Foo Camp
• 39 Ways to Look at Social Networks
• CrowdVine open for beta users
• Social Network Fatigue is a Red Herring