New definition for the word friend.

So I was reading Stina's latest entry and I felt I should poll the community to get their feedback.

There's obviously a new definition for the word "friend." True, some people have different requirements for what constitutes a "friend," while others consider everyone they ever met a "friend."

But in the blogosphere, the word "friend" has a new meaning I can't quite put my finger on. It's like friends are power, having large amounts of friends is like having large amounts of money, though friends can't be traded for goods and services... though it would be cool if they could.

Even in the testosterone-fueled work environment I live in, I've heard conversations where one soldier will brag about having over 300 friends on myspace, and other soldiers will congratulate him like he just found out it isn't herpes after all.

Here on SG, I tried to join the penpal group to meet people in the community but I was denied because... I didn't have enough friends. Isn't that ironic? No. A sea captain shitting an anchor? That's ironic. This is just wierd.

So what is the new definition for friend? And like I stated earlier, new definition doesn't necessarily mean it replaces the old ones. And should the new definition maybe be renamed to avoid confusion? For example "I love my friends, but on myspace I have 1307230578235 frizends! "

Discuss.

I've met and/or hang out with 98% of the people on my my friends list.

*shrug*

[Edited on Dec 16, 2005 by Shalome]

What does it say in the space where you would have friends if you had them? I forget.

There are some people I have on my friends list that I probably wouldn't classify as "friends". Either they're people who I've met at some time or they're people who I have interacted on the boards with and they friend requested me or I friend requested them and that was it. And frankly, that's cool. I've got too many friends, but I'd rather have it that way than be all exclusionary.

The other side of that is that there are some people on my friends list whom I've never met who I consider closer "friends" than many of the people I see on a regular basis.

I used to keep track of what percentage of people on my friends list I had met in real life and once I got over 50% I kind of stopped caring. To me the point is that you've shared something and would like to keep in touch. Whether that something is an awkward hello at a bar or a less-awkward joke on the Sex Talk board, I really don't see a qualitative difference.

But that's just me.

It was something like "Ha ha you have no friends".

If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's good. But I work with a lot of younger folk and I see this everyday.

I have a myspace page 'cause it was the thing to do a while back, and I always have people I will probably never meet irl asking to be my friend. Some of my real life friends (in the original meaning) have over 300 friends in their friend list.

I dunno. Maybe I am the only one who's noticed. Very strange.

Something snarky like "You have no friends! Ha ha!"

I'm tempted to delete all mine now in the interest of SCIENCE.

I smell ya. I'm pretty damn depraved and I know there are things I *cannot* talk about with my catholic high school friends that I still see.

Thank Jebus there's the internet.

They will all stab you in the back, eventually.

No, it's definitely a change in the popular culture. Stuff like this never used to happen before outside of chatrooms. The first time I had a girl email me off myspace I was flabberghasted as to why she would do that and if this meant she wanted to have sex or whatever.

A friend of mine had to tell me that no, it just meant she wanted to say hello and that this is how the kidz are communicatin', yo.

no, no. its definitly real. its a phenomenon, perhaps, or im giving it too much credit.

onlinenes is kind of amazing. you are your literature. theres no body, no verbal stuttering, just your edited responses and icon to represent you.

now, with myspace, i divide people into 3 main camps.

theres the promoters, who want as many people aware of them, because it promotes thier band or whatever, they really dont care about the people on thier list, as long as the message goes out.

then theres the true to lifers who only accept people they know or see about town. thats a definite popularity contest. they care about whos on the list, because its very personal. (as personal as a 200+ list can be)

then theres the strange ones. 19 year old lads who have 200 strippers, or the pretty girl network. (i had a male friend who was on so many girls' pages it became exponential. girls of the same 'look' were adding HIM because he had the same friends as them.) or girls who have the easy boy hookup. or whatever.

additionally, on message boards such as these, you get people who like making connections. just to see who is out there, living life in a different way. or who like to talk to strangers sometimes because its external to the drama networks where they are.

i like to think of the internet message boards having roots in CB culture of the 70s, and ham radio of the 60s. those people who just want to say something to someone over a medium.

whats it like over there, over there where you are?

hahaha. just now on myspace i got a message from a pictureles person named 'Jiz' saying,

"I am on my live cam right now, its
free to look and talk to me! Do not keep me waiting now! "

yeah. promoters.

you too?

shes MY camgirl! getcher own!

The day is coming where the amount of friends you have on your blog really will equal power. I offer this preview of things to come...

Girl : Don't tell me what to do! I have more friends than you do!
Boy: No fair! I'm telling Flux!

One day they will use this to determine who holds what public office.

i don't have enough time or energy in my life to keep up or care how many friends i have on myspace or anywhere really..do you get a prize if you have the most friends or something???..i have met some of the friends i have here and that's great..bizarre it is to me..

hahha....I got a friends request over there from a band that had just set their page up and had something like 20,000 hits in 3 days with 7500 hits that day...I wonder how the hell people have that kind of time to whore....

Don't ever talk to a girl who says she just has a friend

OOOH BABY, YOOOOUUU....

Obviously, they should be called iFriends. It's a cheesy name for a cheesy phenomenon.

On most IM programs, they're called buddies. Seems like a good name for online "friends".

And I've met most of my SG friends in real life, though I don't see them often.

It isn't really that weird. The point is that people give out their addresses in that group, and it's a way to help keep random people coming in just to get addresses for unsavory purposes.

Though I agree that internet "friends" are different from actual friends.

I see almost nothing of value in this debate.

Let me clarify. I've never met Mini Meaney, does that mean I wouldn't rub his belly? No.

I've never met New York Matt, does that mean I wouldn't rub his belly, yes, but only because I'd be too busy rubbing his balls.