Facebook’s friend suggestion feature has become a staple of the social media platform over the years. Many users are familiar with getting notifications or emails informing them that they may know certain people on Facebook. But why does Facebook make these sometimes random suggestions in the first place? There are a few key reasons behind this feature.
To Connect Users
One of the main goals of Facebook when suggesting friends is simply to better connect users. The whole purpose of a social network is to bring people together and help them stay in touch. By using information like shared contacts, networks, education, workplaces, and interests, Facebook aims to link you up with people you may know in real life but aren’t yet connected to on the platform. The friend suggestions can serve as reminders of people you know but haven’t friended on Facebook.
To Keep Users Engaged
Facebook, like all social media platforms, benefits from having users log in and participate as much as possible. One way to boost engagement is by having users actively add more friends and expand their networks. The more friends you have, the more content you can potentially interact with. By enticing users to connect with more relevant contacts through suggestions, this increases the amount of time users are likely to spend scrolling through their feeds liking, commenting on, and sharing posts. More engagement equals more data for Facebook to analyze as well.
To Improve Ad Targeting
The friend suggestions also help Facebook gather more data about you and your connections to improve its ad targeting abilities. The social media giant relies heavily on advertising revenue, so serving users more relevant, targeted ads is important to its bottom line. When you connect with suggested friends, especially ones with details like shared employers, schools, or locations, Facebook can better understand your interests and habits. This allows advertisers to more precisely tailor and deliver ads that users are more likely to care about, interact with, and potentially make purchases from.
How Does Facebook Generate Friend Suggestions?
So how exactly does Facebook’s algorithm figure out which people to suggest you connect with? There are a few key methods the platform uses to come up with relevant recommendations:
Mutual Friends
The most basic way Facebook suggests friends is by looking at networks of mutual friends. If you and another user have several friends in common, especially close friends, chances are you know each other in real life but just aren’t Facebook friends yet. Facebook will compare your friend lists to find overlaps. The more mutual friends you share, the more likely you’ll get recommended to connect.
Networks
Even if you don’t have any direct mutual friends with someone, you may share affiliations like a hometown, university, workplace, or group. Facebook looks at these kinds of networks you have in common with other users. For example, if you and another person are both members of a local parenting group, you’ll get flagged as suggestions since that group indicates you likely live nearby and may know each other.
Contact Information
Uploading your email contacts and phone contacts to Facebook also allows it to match you up with other users. If someone else has your email address or phone number saved in their own uploaded contacts, Facebook can suggest you as friends. This helps reconnect people who may have met briefly or known each other years ago but lost touch.
Location History
If you have location services enabled on your device, Facebook can also keep track of geographic areas you frequent like home, work, shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues. If another Facebook user happens to visit many of the same spots as picked up by their location history, they’ll show up as a suggestion. Frequent proximity indicates you live, work, or play nearby each other and may know one another.
Likes and Interests
By analyzing all the Pages and content you like on Facebook, the platform maps out your hobbies, political views, entertainment tastes, and more. Users who have liked or followed many of the same Pages as you often get suggested under the premise that you likely share common interests and may enjoy connecting.
Events
If you and another local Facebook user have RSVP’d yes to many of the same upcoming events like concerts, festivals, conferences, etc. in your area, Facebook may suggest you connect. Attending the same events implies you have similar tastes in activities and may already know each other through those events.
Profile Details
Basic profile info like current city, hometown, employer, and education are also used by Facebook’s algorithm. Just having the same city or alumni university in common makes it more probable you’d know each other compared to two totally random users. These simple profile details help filter suggestions.
| Connection Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Mutual Friends | You and the suggested user have multiple friends in common |
| Networks | You are both members of the same group, from the same city, work at the same company, etc. |
| Contact Information | The suggested user has your email address or phone number in their contacts |
| Location History | You both frequent the same shops, restaurants, venues, etc. based on location services data |
| Likes and Interests | You like, follow, or interact with many of the same Facebook Pages and content |
| Events | You have both RSVP’d to attend many of the same upcoming local events |
| Profile Details | You share info like current city, hometown, employer, or university |
Pros of Connecting with Suggestions
Accepting Facebook’s suggested friends can have some benefits beyond just expanding your social graph. Here are some potential upsides:
Networking Opportunities
Connecting with more loose acquaintances from your school, hometown, or professional circles can lead to networking opportunities. You may be able to get career advice, job referrals, or other support from these weaker ties in your extended network. It helps keep your network diverse.
Get Involved Locally
Friending nearby contacts whom you may not know that well yet can help you learn about events, groups, and activities happening in your local community. This allows you to get more involved and feel more connected to what’s going on around you.
Meet New Contacts
Suggestions may also introduce you to potentially interesting new contacts with shared interests, even if you don’t know them directly yet. You can discover new personalities and voices to follow.
Stay Informed
By connecting with more friends who post about topics, events, or local happenings you care about, you can stay better informed and more on top of important updates. Even if they are minor acquaintances, their posts can keep you in the loop.
Find Long-Lost Connections
In some cases, friend suggestions may reunite you with old classmates, colleagues, acquaintances, and others you have lost touch with over the years. You can reconnect and revive dormant relationships.
Cons of Connecting with Suggestions
However, there are also some drawbacks to be aware of when friending Facebook-suggested contacts:
Annoying, Irrelevant Suggestions
Sometimes Facebook’s algorithm messes up and suggests people randomly who you have absolutely no connection with. This can be annoying and clutter up your friend recommendations.
Too Many Friend Requests
Mass adding suggested friends can sometimes come across as spammy or desperate if you have no meaningful relationship with the person. It risks damaging your reputation or social standing.
Security/Privacy Concerns
By accepting strangers or very casual acquaintances as friends, you are granting them access to view, comment on, and interact with more of your profile and posts. This can raise privacy concerns.
Unwanted Political or Social Views
Suggested contacts may occasionally share opinions, beliefs, or values that differ from yours or that you find offensive. This can lead to unwanted arguments and friction.
Distracting, Cluttered Feed
Your News Feed can get more cluttered when connections you don’t know that well are frequently posting updates you don’t really care about. This can make it harder to see important updates.
Draining on Mental Health
Feeling obligated to add a bunch of people you barely know as friends can sometimes exacerbate social media-induced anxiety, FOMO, or depression for some users.
How to Manage Friend Suggestions
If you want to clean up and control the friend recommendations you see, here are a few tips:
Hide Specific Suggestions
If you see an irrelevant or annoying suggestion, you can remove it by clicking the “X” icon next to their name. This greys out the person and prevents them from being suggested again.
Delete Your Contact Info
Go to your Facebook account settings and delete any phone numbers or email addresses you have listed. This will limit matching based on uploaded contacts.
Restrict Location Access
Turn off location services for Facebook on your device settings so it can’t track and match your location history with others.
Leave Groups/Networks
You can leave any groups, networks, or affiliations you don’t want informing suggestions. For example, leave your university’s alumni group.
Unlike Pages
If liking certain sports teams, brands, etc. is leading to bothersome suggestions, you can unlike those Pages to change the interests tied to your account.
Review Suggestion Settings
Go to the friends section under Facebook Settings and edit options for mutual friend, location, network, and contact suggestions.
Conclusion
While friend suggestions on Facebook can sometimes be overbearing or off-target, they exist to help facilitate more meaningful connections on the social network. In moderation, accepting relevant suggestions can lead to positive networking, local discovery, and relationship-building. But users should also employ discretion when considering friend requests and be mindful of their privacy and digital well-being. With the right settings and limits in place, the friend suggestion feature can strike an effective balance.