Friends or Enemies?

I recently received a Friend request on Facebook from someone from high school (I think). We had several Friends in common so I thought that I actually probably know the guy and I accepted. It got me to thinking about the nature of social network services (SNS) like Facebook and Myspace.

I understand the competitive nature of "who has the most friends", but SNS shouldn't be about acquiring the most Friends. It should be about acquiring the best Friends (not BFF) and leveraging them to your advantage.

By leveraging I'm referring to:

• staying in contact with important people over great distances
  
• playing games with a large group
  
• raising awareness for social causes
  
• understanding people better through lame personality quizzes
  
• find a long lost friend
  
• learning about job opportunities
  
• sharing funny videos
  

and many, many more cool possibilities. It should not be about "Hey, I kinda knew that guy, why don't we become Friends!" People need a better reason to be Friends.

Of course, this guy sought ME out, so who am I to deny him the awesomeness of Benjamin. He might have a perfectly good reason (or twenty).