Why do I get friend requests on Instagram and Goodreads from people that I don't know, that don't seem to be friends of friends, and that I haven't interacted with at all? Every so often on Instagram and probably three or more times each week on Goodreads, I'll get a friend request from someone that is a complete stranger. I always just delete them on Instagram. I haven't posted anything there myself for more than six months, and I'm really just there to look at pretty pictures of yarn and flowers.
When this happens on Goodreads, I compare books with the person making the friend request, and if we seem to have similar tastes in reading or they write reviews that I appreciate, I will add them as a friend. But I shake my head in puzzlement when the person has zero books.
Here's the most recent one. I've blocked out his name because I didn't feel right about sharing it, but I left his picture. No books, but there is one on his TBR. I thought that maybe he had been busy with other things and hadn't had a chance to read this year, but when I looked back at 2022 and 2021, he had read zero books during both of those years, too!
By then I decided that I had spent too much time on this and just deleted him, but I still can't help wondering why. Why does a person who is not a reader send friend requests to strangers on a book-related website? What does he stand to gain if I would add him as a friend? Is he going to overwhelm my email with spam? Try to get me to invest in his latest can't-lose venture? Is he just lonely and has resorted to trying to find friends someplace where the return is going to be very low? Do you guys get these odd requests from strangers? Tell me why!
I've often wondered this myself. I get a lot more on IG than on Goodreads, and they generally seem to be bots/spam, especially the ones that purport to be men. There's a real pattern to them that you'll notice after a while -- they'll have photos with a child and/or with a dog, photos of them in a pool or otherwise shirtless, often photos in which they're wearing medical scrubs, sometimes in a military uniform. I always block these users, because it's very obvious that they aren't real and I'm not interested in getting spammed. I've only had a few requests like this on Goodreads, but I suspect we'll all see more of them. My only guess is that they're like any other friend requests, hoping to get their foot in the door with an eye toward eventually spamming you.
ReplyDeleteBots. They are bots . . . not real people. That's all I can figure. I get lots of requests from obviously-not-real bots posing as men. They are usually well-known movie stars, tech giants, or Highly Skilled Surgeons (often ranked in the military) . . . Although earlier this week, the "powerball lottery winner" followed me. (Yeah. Right, bud-o.) Anyway, once every couple of weeks I go through a clear them out. The Goodreads ones are much weirder . . .
ReplyDeleteI get them too. Oh so many handsome men out there desperately looking for ....................well, something! Who knows what.
ReplyDeleteI hope they are all Bots. I just remove them. For some reason, maybe because I don't have many Goodreads friends, I don't get many requests on Goodreads. I probably just jinxed myself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kym, they are bots and not real people.
ReplyDeleteAnother in the bot corner... damn and blast them all. (but this is an excellent why... I wonder the same myself!)
ReplyDeletemy daughter has informed me they are bots. I get friends all the time on Insta from single middleaged men with three photos and thousands of followings. I delete them. If they say 'hey beautiful' I block them.
ReplyDelete