Telling the world about your friends

is apparently the new danger on social media.
There is some research reported in this morning's paper. It has been done by someone at one of the local universities and another in the United States. They are claiming that they can tell a lot not just about people but about their friends by what people write on sites like Facebook. 
The study has been made for the purpose of looking at "predictive behaviour", especially in relation to artificial intelligence. The idea that it is possible to look at more than that came about while doing the research. 
Of course you can tell something about what someone is like by the company they keep. I keep company with writers and craftspeople because I write and I knit and crochet. I also read and I take an interest in embroidery and all sorts of other "crafty" things. 
But....off screen I am friends with people who read and others who don't read. I am friends with people who have a wide range of hobbies.  I know nothing about motorbike maintenance or philately, beekeeping or sailing. I know very little about folk dancing or choral singing, cake decorating or orchids.  I have friends who are very keen on all these things. I also have friends from the left and right of the political spectrum, friends who are atheists and others who are devoutly religious. 
I don't always agree with my friends about everything. They wouldn't be terribly interesting people to know if I did. Someone once said that I don't have many friends on social media. I think I know what she meant. There are people who have hundreds of "friends". These are people they scarcely know, or don't know at all. They have connected with them for all sorts of reasons  but it is unlikely they will ever meet.
I don't want that. I am friends with people I have met and like. I am also friends with a few I have not yet met but hope to meet some day. We have interests in common. We have friends in common. It doesn't mean I always agree with their tastes or their politics or their other interests.
I'd like to read that research. Is it making unjustified assumptions about behaviour based on our friendships?