[dragonwriter]

I'm not sure how true that is; virtually everyone I've encountered distinguished unqualified “friends” from “Facebook friends”, the two groups being distinct, usually overlapping, categories. There are certainly people who treasure their number of social media followers, just as there have always been people who treasure the offline equivalent, and social media like Facebook makes it easier to quantity and compare than the offline world. But I don't think it's really that common for people to conflate social media network sizes with genuine friendship.

[always_good]

It's just a tempting, low-hanging way for HNers to feel superior to others.

"I bet all these idiots cannot tell the difference between real friends and the Facebook friend counter like I can. ;) BTW I've deleted my Facebook because I had a crippling addiction to it."