It Baffles Me...

I've been seeing these little polls make their way through the facebook ranks for a while, and each time it makes me wonder a few things...

1. How many of the 502,091 people (that's over half a million, for those not good at math) who responded to this even know who Carol Anderson (author of this particular poll) is?? There have been many other similar polls, this was just the most recent.
2. If you don't know her (or the author of the specific poll you're answering), WHY do you respond? It can't be that you want someone who isn't even your friend to keep you on her friends list. Think about it people, you're telling someone you don't know not to unfriend you, which she can't do anyway because you're not even on her list.
3. Do you hope that your current friends will see this and not unfriend you? I can't speak for all your friends, but that's not what goes through my head when I see people respond to these. Is your current relationship with those on your friends list so fragile you feel this will save it? Instead, why not try doing things like, oh... I don't know... contacting them? Post on their wall. Send messages. See how they are doing. 
4. Let's say, for the sake of argument, she was on your friends list. If this is the criteria on which she bases her friends list membership, is it a big loss if she drops you? This is right up there with vaguebooking and the "I'm going to post a self-depreciating status so everyone can tell me how great I am" posts. 
5. 8,191 followers. Seriously?? It's that interesting you want to see how it turns out? "I've never really liked Carol, so I want to see how many of her friends want to stay" You have a pool going at work and you've got $10 riding on "I LIKE TURTLES" to come in the top 5?

So, can we all just agree to let these polls die? Resist the urge to click. Stay strong. When you see them get recycled again, just keep scrolling through your news feed until you find something worth reading.