True Friendship Always

Defining true friendship is a modern problem. For some people. It seems that technology has made idiots of us all when it comes to knowing who our true friends are. At least this is what some dude named Simon Sinek says.

But he also says that he cries a lot. That’s right, I say HE cries a lot. Don’t even get me started on the failure of masculinity in the new millennium. Anyhoo, he says we need to cry together on couches to be true friends, I say this is quite good enough :(. Or I would if I could stomach emoticons.

Facebook gets blamed for watering down relationships. Apparently true friends are only those people you have a deep trust with. Who knew? I’ll tell you who, everyone who is not emotionally confused. And anyway, I say that digitally sharing a photo album with questionable photos of yourself is just the same. Mine include me drinking various types of dubious alcohol. LOOK AT THEM! Now we are friends.

The crying man is also worried that putting our personal information on display confuses people and makes them think they know us. Much like how reading a celebrity blog makes you think you and Brad Pitt are pals. To be honest, I did fall victim to this once. It was while working at the CBC. I was screening and cataloguing a show from the 70s called Take 30. Hana Gartner was one of the hosts at that time. Hana still worked at the CBC so I would occasionally run into her on an elevator. It would be just me in her in there and my first instinct was to blurt something out as if we were friends. But seriously it was just a momentary relapse, I didn’t actually think we were bros. Hana, if you’re reading this, can you please return my calls? Thanks.

In the context of Facebook. what is true friendship, friends? It’s the same as in real life. In the network of people you have met in person, some are acquaintances and some are true friends. If you are savvy, you know the difference. On Facebook this community just gets disproportionately magnified, your friends remain the same, your acquaintances grow to ridiculous numbers.

Sinek says about friendship: ‘you can’t request it’. True, when you friend request someone and they accept that does not immediately mean you are friends, but it can mean you like that person enough to try. There will always be people who request your FB friendship then disappear once you accept, to these people friendship is merely a numbers game. They define their social status by quantity and not quality. Poor dears.

I have proof that Facebook can help turn a stranger into a friend, her name is Kaggers and she is my pal. Our friendship was formed with the help of Facebook. Deal with it.