Facebook Spam & Suggestions

Has anyone else noticed that ever since Facebook turned on their "friend finder" feature, that this social network, which has been a haven away from spam, is the new spam. It is now more crowded than my email inbox.

Every day, I receive emails and updates from well over a dozen people who have added me as a friend and I've never even heard of their name. When I ask them how we know each other, they often reply - "we don't." So, no, I didn't even meet them for five minutes at a cocktail party. This sure feels like spam.

It's deceiving of course because the people who have added you as a "friend" may actually share 5, 10 or more mutual friends, so the invite 'guilts' you into saying yes, which I don't btw. If I added every incoming request, my friend nework would be 10,000 in no time. Tell me, how on earth can anyone manage 10,000 so called friends? And why would you want to?

I think a key benefit of Facebook is the ability to keep tabs on friends from around the world you don't normally see or talk to on a regular basis. (remember that I'm the 35-45 year old demographic)

Two things I think Facebook should implement:

1-Separate these two groups. Allow us to have an extended network we can use for 'fishing,' i.e., my daughter is applying for Brown, anyone have any tips? I just moved to Austin and need a new dentist. Advice? These are great use cases for that extended network.

Within that network, allow me to turn off daily updates from that extended network so I'm not bombarded by their 'news' on a regular basis, giving me the bandwidth to focus on the people I actually know and care about inside my Friend network.

2-Allow people to belong to more than one geographic network. I've lived in several countries and cities and some for significant periods of time. Why can't I be part of the London, Boston, New York and San Francisco networks for example? I travel extensively so could actually attend events in these cities as well as others a few times a year.