On facebook, why do some people list their friends as brothers and sisters, even list being married to them when they're not?

May happen after a frape (a couple of my male mates now say they are married on facebook as they do act like a married couple sometimes, after someone set it without them knowing as a joke, they just left it as they are not in relationships or anything and its pretty funny as we all call them an old married couple even though they are both straight), or may be to hide the fact that they have recently broken up from a partner and dont want those messages popping up to say soandso is recently single or whatever… with the family thing I have found with my mates it happens with the people who arent so close to their own family or really really close to their mates and so will call their mates their family. Other than that it is a little weird and I dont do it but each to their own hey!

I have a friend who jokingly views me as her daughter. She also jokingly views another one of her friends as her granddaughter. It means we’re close and they’re close.

I haven’t done it on Facebook, but in my big ole’ Italian family it’s kind of tradition to refer to a variety of people as Aunt or Uncle (‘Zia’ or ‘Zio’). It’s usually a combination of age and closeness, or, as we say, “It’s outta respect”.

Also, I had a best friend who (after years of friendship) came to refer to me as his brother. Plus it was a bit of whimsy.

I imagine what happens on Facebook is similar (with maybe a little extra whimsy thrown in).

It’s a joke or way of being funny by showing these people are their very best friends.

It’s a joke.

One of my best friends has about 40 people listed as his brothers and sisters.
I have one of my friends listed as my mother and my actual dad listed as my dad.

To indicate the closeness of their friendship.

Because they’re silly, and just having fun. Have you ever had a really close friend who felt like a brother or sister? My best friend has been my best friend for 23 years. She’s not listed as my sister, but I do consider her to be as close to me as my sister is.

Somewhat amusing aside: My sister hasn’t listed her gender on Facebook, so when she added me as “sister” and I accepted, she was (and still is) listed as my “brother”. I guess the system defaults to male. Seems silly, when it could just as easily default to “sibling”.

I did that with my very best friend. She’s listed as my sister, because we act like sisters and love each other like sisters. Strangely enough, I’m much closer to her than I am to my douchebag of a brother.

^^ Haha. That reminds me of one of my friends. She feels like a sister to me and I feel closer to her than most of my own family. We even get asked if we are sisters sometimes because we “look so much alike” according to at least some people. It’s odd because I don’t look like all of my sisters and she feels like she looks nothing like her sister.

Not to overanalyze this, but I think this may also speak to a looser definition of what “family” is that many of us have adopted in recent years.

I was once listed as “in a complicated relationship” with one of my good female friends on Facebook as a joke and it resulted in a great deal of butthurt and wailing and gnashing of teeth when people found out it was a joke. I guess Facebook = serious bznss.

^^ HAHAHAHA! Well, they do say… “It’s not official unless it’s Facebook official” or something like that. That being said, it’s not unheard of for people to set their Facebook status to “Married” to keep people off their backs who won’t leave them alone because they’re looking for more.

It’s a way to separate friends from acquaintances people call friends, kind of an inner circle and yes, it’s more a high school thing. My stepkids do it too.