Written for Sunday Scribblings ‘Revolution’ and Carry On Tuesday ‘What is a friend?’
What is a friend? According to Facebook, it’s anyone who
asks you to become one; if you are a user you probably have fifty, a hundred, a
thousand friends! Did you know that on average we each have130 network site friends each,
but only two close non-family confidants.
If ever a word has become devalued over the past few years
then ‘friend’ must be at the top of the heap. It has certainly undergone a
mighty revolution! Even that most august of publications the Oxford English
Dictionary now lists one meaning of the word friend as ‘a contact on a social
networking site’ immediately after ‘a person with whom one has a bond of mutual
affection, typically one exclusive of sexual relations or family’. Interestingly,
it is placed between fried and frieze which I suppose is quite fitting since
friendships tend often to blow hot and cold! (That works better spoken than
spelled)
They say that a friend in need is a friend indeed, so if any
of my hoard of Facebook friends are reading this right now I could do with a bit
of extra cash, so let’s put our friendship to the test!
I like the closeness to "frieze" as you decorate your Facebook site with all these "friends" on your wall! As for "fried" many have been burnt with fat(uous) remarks on Facebook!
ReplyDeletelol.....I know people with hundreds of Fcbk. friends whose page they've never been to....It's a contest to some...same as collecting numbers of followers on blogs....it's not about how many....it's about how good.....
ReplyDeleteHa. I bet you don't get too many friendly donations. I pretty much disengaged from FB soon after I became a member.
ReplyDeleteSome sapient thinking about friends. Thanks, friend...
ReplyDeleteSo true! That last bit about money was the cherry on top :).
ReplyDeletethanks for the laugh, Keith!
ReplyDeletei don't do facebook, but i have quite a few "real" friendships which started on twitter or in the poetry blogosphere. the fact that i may never meet them face-to-face does add a new facet to the relationships, but doesn't lessen the feelings. of course, we also email and send cards & letters via snail mail, text and talk on the telephone, and even video chat on skype. sometimes i think we have more contact than i do with my "local" friends. {smile}
your prompt of a "What is a friend?" sent me in a different direction than i had intended in my poem this week ~ thanks!
♥
LOL
ReplyDeleteI realised with my teen when she had over 300 'friends' on her Facebook and some were married men triple her age...no, no, no. She was adding friends of friends without even knowing who they were. We went through each and everyone of them and she ended up with 100 that she personally knew!
Yes, I agree, the definition of a friend is rapidly changing with all the new media. I could do with a bit of cash from a friend too..:)
giggle, giggle, giggle :-) You are so right, Keith! This is the Word No. 1 of devaluation. I get rather cynical thinking of FB-friends. Oh, please... LOL
ReplyDeleteGood thinking, friend.
ReplyDelete