Questions concerning face book.

Face book. Upon joining face book I must admit I wasn't thrilled, just another thing to occupy my time and another system to figure out. (Which by the way they decide to change more often than not just to keep you busy with it.)
"FRIENDS"
When you take a good look at face book it would appear that any one person has hundreds and hundreds of friends- but can this really be the case? Can classmates from 3rd grade, whom you haven't spoken to in 30 years, really be considered a "friend?" Doesn't there have to be some form of communication between two people to be called friends? I think I even have some on my page that I don't even know or cannot place! Are these people really my "friends"?
"REQUESTS"
I have never in my life had someone who formally "requested" to be my friend and yet here on face book this is a regular occurrence! Should one ever, in any relationship, have to "request" to be your friend? I cannot remember a time when I went up to someone and said something like "I have only known you for a short while, but may I request to be your friend? This I am sure would send some running in the opposite direction!
"IGNORE"
I would never purposefully "ignore" my friend, yet once again that is an option for any "friend" I have on face book. I can ignore them any time I want! Now granted, there have been some times while speaking to friends that my mind has wandered and my focus was not completely with them, but to purposefully tell myself I am going to ignore them- I have never done.
Now, before you call me a hypocrite I admit, I do have a face book, I do go on it occasionally, I do have many "friends" (and have even ignored some) I have "requested" some friends as well. But it just makes me wonder- how many true friends do I have out there? How often have I been "ignored" without even knowing it? And am I just part of a status symbol to be added to someones friend list to make them appear as though they have more friends than the next guy? Face book.......hum..