Ever find some random "mutual friend" combinations on Facebook?

redheadbride15

When I'm bored and/or procrastinating at work I sometimes look at my Facebook friends' profiles and see what mutual friends we have. The vast majority are really straightforward (I have clusters of family, high school friends, college friends, graduate school friends, coworkers, etc.). But here are some random combinations that make me think that the world is actually a very, very small place...

- Someone I went to graduate school with (in Philadelphia) who now lives in San Francisco + someone I used to work with (in Boston) who has always lived in Boston and is in a totally different field from friend #1. I have absolutely NO idea how/why these two are connected!

- My childhood best friend from New Hampshire, who still lives in New Hampshire + someone I went to college with in Pennsylvania but later moved to New Hampshire. Apparently they're great friends! I found this out when #2 showed up in #1's wedding photos and I did a double-take!

- A high school friend from New Hampshire who lives in Seattle + a college friend from Pennsylvania who lives in Seattle (In this case friend #1's husband and friend #2 are work colleagues).

- A friend of my husband's from Texas that I've never met + my cousin who lives in Minnesota. They're both social workers - that's all I know!

arrippa

I have only one that I have noticed.

I work in Boston and a co-workers wife, who lives here, is friends with a girl that I grew up with in Cali. Turns out that the co-workers wife lived in my hometown briefly.

 

lyndausvi

A friend from HS and my cousin are FB friends.  It freaked me out a little. I was trying to figure out why my cousin was replying to one of her posts.  Then almost at the same time all 3 of us were like "wait, how do you know him/her?".  It was pretty funny actually.

 Apparently cousin and friend have a mutual friend and had met a few times.

MrsMack10612

This boggles my mind every now again.  Usually it's not that friend A & B are friends, but they have a mutual friend C.  Folks from completely different circles in my life that have a mutual friend.

ShesSoCold

My H's girlfriend in high school is really close friends with my coworker. 

I think that's it. 

redheadbride15

redheadbride15 said:

- Someone I went to graduate school with (in Philadelphia) who now lives in San Francisco + someone I used to work with (in Boston) who has always lived in Boston and is in a totally different field from friend #1. I have absolutely NO idea how/why these two are connected!

Oh, I just figured this one out! They both went to HARVARD. Shame on me for not recognizing the significance of that immediately! (Please appreciate my sarcasm).

Still gotta figure out the social workers though...

PamBeesly524

@redheadbride15 we have a lot of states/cities in common.. Maybe we have some FB mutual friends?!

Here's a real-life coincidence - The roommate I randomly got paired up with my freshman year of college (In NY) summered/still summers in my hometown in NH ever since she was little. We got to meet up and go shopping for our room before school even started. It was weird/awesome.

NowIamMrsKlein

Along the same lines, but FI and I get a kick out of finding out random connections between our families.

- my BIL was FI cousins Best Man

- FI aunt went to the same nail lady as me

- I worked with FI cousins husband for 4 years

- A close friend of my SIL went to highschool with FI

- My parent's neighbours daughter is married to an old coworker of FI

Seriously I have no idea how it took us so long to find each other....

teddygirl9

I had one I just noticed - I'm an admin for our community FB page. One person asked to join, and I went to jr high/high School with a friend of his. Its not that interesting.

WinstonsGirl

An old Uni friend played ball with my co-worker.  There was another one I found that seems totally random, but I can't remember at the moment.  I'd have to go back and find it again

MyNameIsNot

I've never gone looking for them, but I saw one once when my sister's HS bestie started posting on a one of my HS friend's walls. Sister and I didn't go to the same high school and are 4 years apart, so the connection wasn't obvious. It turned out that they have kids that play sports together now. 

One of my good friends is recently divorced and back out in the dating world. She keeps "running into" people we know on tinder and whatever the hell apps people use to date now.

redheadbride15

kikilamp said:

@redheadbride15 we have a lot of states/cities in common.. Maybe we have some FB mutual friends?!

Here's a real-life coincidence - The roommate I randomly got paired up with my freshman year of college (In NY) summered/still summers in my hometown in NH ever since she was little. We got to meet up and go shopping for our room before school even started. It was weird/awesome.

Everyone I know is a social worker, doctor, or computer/tech person - so if that overlaps too then I bet the answer is yes!

lachattefatale

Most of the unexpected connections among my FB friends are because they are mormons. I assume they met each other at some kind of national-level church thing, or at BYU, but it's still a little strange and random.

I have a set I haven't figured out yet, but it's another layer so I'm not going to ask. Two friends who, as far as I know, do not know each other or have much in common, have a mutual friend who is a stranger to me.

[Deleted User]

My ex was a total douche canoe.  His half sister was connected to my step cousin.  I had to ask step cousin not to share info w/ me about her in the event she was still in contact w/ him.  Freaked me out when I saw her name come up on one of his posts...

lachattefatale

SoontobeMrsKlein said:

Along the same lines, but FI and I get a kick out of finding out random connections between our families.

- my BIL was FI cousins Best Man

- FI aunt went to the same nail lady as me

- I worked with FI cousins husband for 4 years

- A close friend of my SIL went to highschool with FI

- My parent's neighbours daughter is married to an old coworker of FI

Seriously I have no idea how it took us so long to find each other....

*boxes*

Ooh, yeah, I have a couple of non-facebook things like that, too. My grandparents owned a bowling alley when my dad was little, and I forget how it goes, but they either bought it from or sold it to my fiance's grandmother's partner's parents. Also, FI's grandfather's godson was in the army with my dad and is the BIL of a family friend of ours.

novella1186

When I started dating H I saw that we had mutual facebook friends that were super random. One was a really weird kid who had gone to my elementary school, and H met him in college. 

Another was the little brother of a guy I worked with in my hometown. Again, H met him at college. 

Actually, the reason I met H was because I went to high school --and then post grad I worked with-- a girl that he was good friends with in (you guessed it) college. And she introduced us. 

mileybangerz

Facebook keeps telling me that I have connections to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift.  What the fuck?

banana468

DH and I have a mutual friend from college and we're FB friends with him.

Later mutual friend graduated and moved to Brooklyn, NY where he married a girl who graduated from the same HS as DH (DH went to HS in CT).   And that girl's BIL now works on the same floor as DH.

DH's cousin is friends with a person that was a camp friend of his from his teens.

knottie9c5ed33df4bbd226

One of the current guys on The Bachelor came up on "People I Might Know" because he went to college the same place where I did my Masters. Other than that, my FI's close coworker apparently went to high school with a friend I have and it came up on Facebook. Nothing major!

kvruns

MrsMack10612 said:

This boggles my mind every now again.  Usually it's not that friend A & B are friends, but they have a mutual friend C.  Folks from completely different circles in my life that have a mutual friend.

I have that too. 3 people that I know from 3 completely different circles are friends and regularly hangout. Every time I see a fb post it is like wait how did this happen?!

huskypuppy14

So it's not just me then? I have had this happen about a dozen times. I also live in Boston, and most of the connections are people that live in the area but are just different circles,and we all are similar ages. I really think Boston is such a small city and everyone knows everyone. Also there is a reason people say there is 6 degrees of separation from everyone.

Someone who was on my softball team that was centered around an old co worker is best friends with a friend of my old roommate. So it was so weird when were at the same party one night not related to softball.

Another roommates friend was co workers with one of my other friends.

My current co worker is friends with a couple people I went to college with. (Though we all went to school in the same city, and are the same age, so this isn't that weird). 

My cousin went to HS with the wife of one of my husband's college friend. The only reason we know that is my cousin told me she knew one of the girls at table 1 at my wedding.

My husband's best friend's now ex wife went to HS with my mom's best friend's son.

A co worker is friend's with a former co worker of mine from another company (same field, same city, so not too crazy).

My sister's best friend's husband is friend's with a friend of my husband's. All three men went to the same college though, but are different ages.

thisismynickname2

I have a few of these, mainly coworkers who know people I grew up with. That Chicagoland for you.

The recent one was attending a wedding in CA for DH's friend/coworker, and running into the sister of one of my old high school friends. She was in theater with the bride. Crazy.

redheadbride15

@huskypuppy14 Maybe it is Boston! Although a lot of my random connections have nothing to do with Boston, even though I live here now.

I'd also like to point out that the posts in this thread are fun despite being realllllly confusing to follow. ("My husband's sister's friend's husband is friends with my sister's husband's friend's sister" - got that?)

wandajune6

An old coworker that I'm friends with tried to break up my sister's BIL's first marriage. Didn't find that out until the BIL's wife saw our connection.

I don't have this come up a lot on Facebook but it's odd on LinkedIn. Half of my current clients are connected to an ex- particularly weird since we're in different industries. He's also connected to tons of people that I meet through small business incubators, though that makes more sense. It does make for awkward conversations with folks when they ask.

MrsMack10612

redheadbride15 said:

@huskypuppy14 Maybe it is Boston! Although a lot of my random connections have nothing to do with Boston, even though I live here now.

I'd also like to point out that the posts in this thread are fun despite being realllllly confusing to follow. ("My husband's sister's friend's husband is friends with my sister's husband's friend's sister" - got that?)

I wouldn't be surprised about the Boston thing.  It's a surprisingly small "big" city and people have a way of getting connected.  Especially if you add in a lot of the surrounding heavy commuter towns.

Bubblegum5586

I have noticed this too. Only one from recently sticks out to me.

A good friend from freshman year of college who lived in the western part of the state (where we went to college) and she started dating someone right at the end of college (we weren't hanging out anymore so I never met him).

I saw they recently got married and a week later a childhood friend from elementary school changed his profile picture to him and the groom! So I go to the Groom's profile and see we have like 50 friends in common! Come to find you he is from the town next to mine and he went to the regional highschool, but I did not. So that is why we have so many friends in common but I had no idea who is was!