are we friends yet?

I have a friend (a real one!) who has an exceptionally busy and popular facebook page.  there's over 700 'friends'on his list.

I know other people with similar amounts and I wonder...how many of these people are actually friends? And when did collecting friends become a national hobby?

Someone told me that we can expect to have about 5 real friends in our lives - that is, by the time we reach the end of it all, we can look back and see less that half a dozen people who have lasted the distance and who we could really count as special.  That's the ones who are there for the trials and triumphs, no matter what.

I know another person who used to take literally hundreds of photographs.  Boxes, albums full,  pretty much all shots of  people having fun.  She said that by looking at the photos she could convince herself what a good time she was having.  Which is completely different to looking at photos to remember what a great time you actually had.

So these thousands of aquaintances that we have.. are these also just examples of how we need to be reminded of our own importance...our own significance in life?  Why do we accumulate them in the first place?    If 15 people instant message me each evening can I then be satisfied that I am liked, loved, popular?  And if no-one does, do I then need to consider myself, well, a bit of a social failure?

If I don't answer an email for 24 hours, don't post a facebook status for a week, and don't tweet anymore, who is really going to care?  In fact, who is actually going to notice?

Is this another part of life that needs some serious decluttering?