What are friends??

With so many social media outlets these days it's easy to find yourself referring to NUMEROUS people as your "friend". What does this mean though? Before Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. people had a whole new meaning of the word friend. It was usually someone whom you hung out with on seemingly regular basis, or someone who you were once close with, or shared some sort of common bond. Today, it's simply... hey I know you... be my friend. I'll admit, I am guilty of this type of friending, but it seems to me that it is out.of.control!! What do you do about it?? It seems like no matter what you do on any given social networking site, you are going to hurt someones feelings. Whether it's being friends with a friends ex, enemy, etc.. OR NOT being friends with someone. People seem to take a huge offense to not being included in someone's friend list. Why is this??

I recently decided to "cut back" my friend list and MAN OH MAN did I have problems. First of all, you can't EVER not be friends with family without hurting someones feelings. So.... add in your 400 relatives. THEN, you have to add in all of your classmates b/c they found you on the "class of (instert school and year of graduation)" site and decided to make you part of their GINORMOUS list. It is SOOO hard to decide where to draw the line on these websites. For instance. There are people I went to elementary school with whom I have added. I haven't seen these people in 15+ years, but it's fun to see where we are now. Then there are my HS and college classmates. I may have had a couple of classes with them, had a great time... and been "friends" back then. Does this mean it would be rude of me to cut them out now? Does this mean I don't like them anymore if I don't add them? Does this mean I want them knowing about my life?? I DON'T KNOW!!! I like to keep people around that are in the same phase of life as me ... married, homeowner, parent.. b/c this helps me to relate and have people that relate to me. I think it's nice to have a network of people who get what you're going through. Does this mean I don't want my single, childless friends to be deleted. NO. It's just a ridiculous line that almost seems impossible to draw these days. This is mostly just a ranting post... Sorry!!


Yes. I'm saying it is hard to define "friends" in today's social networking world without hurting feelings. I'm sorry!! You can stalk me here if you want. (Just comment every once in a while)

I have nothing more to add... sorry for that rant.