Six Degrees
There was an article in the New York Times op-ed recently about friendship entitled Do your friends actually like you?. It does take a rather narrow view of the definition of friendship but had enough substance that it got me to thinking.
Someone pointed out that we seem to have replaced the word acquaintance with the word friend. I think Facebook is partially to blame since you ‘friend’ people on that platform. One’s online persona tends to be a cleaned up version of one’s real personality unless they work very hard to create a new version of themselves many times because they don’t like the person they are. I am not putting sock-puppets in this because they are an entirely different animal.
I have degrees of friendship.
There are the people I consider family either by blood or by choice. These are the folks that have seen me at both my best and worse and we would go through hell and back for each other.
Then there are my friends. Some are closer to me than others. I enjoy their company and I hope they enjoy mine. I look forward to spending time with them and they know me pretty well as I do them. But there are some things that I don’t talk about with them mostly by mutual choice.
There are people I am acquainted with. We know each other and acknowledge that we know each other. We may have broken bread together and we know about each other’s families and the like. I again enjoy spending time with them but they are not the first name that comes to mind when you ask who my friends are.
There are my professional acquaintances who I have met through my various careers. We have things in common like the projects we worked on together. I would like to think that they would be happy to work with me again and, for the most part, I with them.
There are people that I have met at conventions or on the job or through mutual friends. Nothing more than an encounter or two.
And there are those are users who call me friend to get something from me or my connections. I tend to go all southern polite with them.
The Internet has made it easier to be friends with people. Making connections with other human beings that share mutual interests is nice. I have people I consider friends all over the world and I can keep up with them and their lives because of the Internet.
I am grateful for my friends.
Someone pointed out that we seem to have replaced the word acquaintance with the word friend. I think Facebook is partially to blame since you ‘friend’ people on that platform. One’s online persona tends to be a cleaned up version of one’s real personality unless they work very hard to create a new version of themselves many times because they don’t like the person they are. I am not putting sock-puppets in this because they are an entirely different animal.
I have degrees of friendship.
There are the people I consider family either by blood or by choice. These are the folks that have seen me at both my best and worse and we would go through hell and back for each other.
Then there are my friends. Some are closer to me than others. I enjoy their company and I hope they enjoy mine. I look forward to spending time with them and they know me pretty well as I do them. But there are some things that I don’t talk about with them mostly by mutual choice.
There are people I am acquainted with. We know each other and acknowledge that we know each other. We may have broken bread together and we know about each other’s families and the like. I again enjoy spending time with them but they are not the first name that comes to mind when you ask who my friends are.
There are my professional acquaintances who I have met through my various careers. We have things in common like the projects we worked on together. I would like to think that they would be happy to work with me again and, for the most part, I with them.
There are people that I have met at conventions or on the job or through mutual friends. Nothing more than an encounter or two.
And there are those are users who call me friend to get something from me or my connections. I tend to go all southern polite with them.
The Internet has made it easier to be friends with people. Making connections with other human beings that share mutual interests is nice. I have people I consider friends all over the world and I can keep up with them and their lives because of the Internet.
I am grateful for my friends.