Friends

Everyday I get new friend requests on Facebook and through my email It’s great to have so many people who want to be my friend.

However, these aren’t real people. They are bots or scammers phishing for information from me. They post comments on my posts or on posts I’ve responded to telling me how great I am, and how they’d like me to send them a friend request. I won’t. I delete the message or the request. Sadly, I know these ”people” don’t really want to be my friend, and it frankly angers me that innocent people fall for the ruse.

We all want to be liked, don’t we? I remember back to preschool days when I wanted somebody to be my friend. Same thing in elementary school, middle school and high school. We want friends who like us, appreciate us and support us. And these days, it’s so easy to find friends through social media. I’ve found distant relatives and former classmates through social media and am happy to connect with them again. But how many friend requests are from people who really want to be friends?

Often, I get a friend request from another writer, then if I confirm their request, I start getting ads about their new book. In my opinion, these are not real friends. They are users. Now, I know we should share each other’s successes, but if that’s the only reason you want to be my friend, then  I feel like I’ve been taken advantage of.

I’ve had my website ten years and have watched the number of hits it gets grow. I used to see spikes in hits when I posted a new blog. But now, I’m getting an amazing number of hits, but it’s not because I’m posting more often. On the contrary.  Does that mean my books are selling great? No. My sales have not matched my website hits.

I receive a report that tells me which countries hit my posts the most.  Thankfully, the number one country is the U.S. However, the second country with the most hits is China.  I have never posted anything about China. My posts are about lighthouses and writing, and God is often part of the topic. But I guarantee you that those people in China do not care about lighthouses in the US. Therefore, all those hits are not from people who support my posts, my books or want to know me. The hits are from hackers trying to hack into my website. So I have to face the disappointing truth that all those hits are not my friends. All they want to do is hack into my account.

Recently, I had a ton of hits from The Netherlands. Guess what? I’ve never written about a lighthouse in The Netherlands. However, my books are not that popular in The Netherlands. My website manager told me the laws about internet abuse are very lax in The Netherlands, so a lot of hackers will go through its sites.

It’d be great if those 7000 hits per week (currently), were done by real friends. But the truth is, they weren’t.

However, I am very thankful for the real friends I have.

So do you really want to be my friend? Let me know how we know each other.

“A friend loves at all times.” Proverbs 17:17a

Blessings,

Marilyn