Your Facebook Nine... any theories?

[ShiftyNJ]

It seems to be a closely-guarded secret, and I've seen many theories flying around. I hesitate to bring this up lest it reveals just how neurotic (and bored) I am, but I thought it might be an interesting topic.

The nine "friends" on your Facebook page. How are they chosen? What makes them stay the same for long periods of time, then suddenly change?

Currently my dad is one, my dude is one , and one of my best friends is on there, but the others are not people I'm especially close to; I talk to two of them fairly often but not on Facebook.

How about yours? Any theories on what drives this?

[TwisttheLeaf]

I'd be surprised if I even have 9 friends on Facebook.

*Goes to look.*

[TwisttheLeaf]

Oh hey, look at that. I have 16. From just looking at the 9 on the front page of my FB page, I would say they are the ones that I interact with (and that interact with me) the most.

[MikeW]

I had to go look. I seldom visit FB although I have friends who post to it constantly. Back a year or so ago I culled and got rid of most of my "friends"… especially any that were family. I actually have a very BAD feeling about FB… But as to the "Nine" never really paid that much attention although, now that I look, I know all of them are fairly active on FB.

[Lexington]

They're the ones I've interacted with the most recently. At least, they seem to be.

Lex

[East]

Facebook freaks me out....so I have none.....

[Nanaki]

My Facebook Nine seem to be the friends I have, in some way, openly interacted with the most. I use FB's private messaging feature a lot, but none of the friends I PM with show up.

[Iceblink]

I do not go and view my fb friends pages that often and that is one of the things that goes into determining the nine. Most of my interaction is from seeing their posts on my timeline and then replying. Much of my activity on Facebook is through commenting on public pages like news pages, groups, fan pages, etc. I imagine when I do have even brief interaction with friends on fb, it can change the nine pretty quickly.

I just did a little experiment. Go to your Facebook profile and click on "view as" and choose one of your fb friends to see what they see when looking at your profile. You will notice they do not all see them same friends come up on your Facebook nine friends grid. It is different for different for different people viewing your profile.

[Lexington]

I decided to check my current "Top Nine" to see if I can explain them all.

1. My partner. I'm assuming that one is understandable.

2. A MtF trans* whom I've given a lot of support to over the last year or two. I haven't talked to her all that much recently (she moved to another country and she's busy with other stuff), but she does post a lot, and I do respond on occasion.

3. A friend that goes to sporting events with me, and we get together for other stuff. She posts quite a bit, too.

4. A guy I've worked with recently, and who collects records like I do. He tends to post (left-leaning) political stuff fairly often.

5. A musician friend I went to see perform on Friday. We interact from time to time, and I was on his page a few times to verify the venue, the time, and the line-up.

6. This is the only weird one. I don't know if I've ever actually conversed with him. He must have sent me the friend request, since I don't send out requests to people I don't know. But he's recently become a UFC fighter, and he had his first bout recently, so my feed has been pretty heavy with pictures of his training, pictures of his bout, and (ick) links to kickstarter campaigns to pay for his training. Lots of people have been "sharing" his posts, too.

7. Another local musician I've seen recently, and who has done some work with me. We tend to comment on each other's posts, so I'm not surprised to see him here.

8. ...yes, another local musician I've been working with. He also posts a fair chunk, and we tend to comment on each other's posts.

9. A friend of mine from way back. We go to concerts together and whatnot.

None of them are surprising except for number 6, really, but I at least can find a rationale behind that one.

Lex

[ShiftyNJ]

I do not go and view my fb friends pages that often and that is one of the things that goes into determining the nine. Most of my interaction is from seeing their posts on my timeline and then replying. Much of my activity on Facebook is through commenting on public pages like news pages, groups, fan pages, etc. I imagine when I do have even brief interaction with friends on fb, it can change the nine pretty quickly.

I just did a little experiment. Go to your Facebook profile and click on "view as" and choose one of your fb friends to see what they see when looking at your profile. You will notice they do not all see them same friends come up on your Facebook nine friends grid. It is different for different for different people viewing your profile.

Yes I have noticed that. I think it pulls up common friends, if any, first. But, although I do go on friends' timelines and comment there, I have not seen that have an impact on my nine, at least not lately. I think they tinker with Facebook all the time; things change subtly without fanfare.