The way I was using it is that I have many different social interactions, from people whom I've grown up with and known all my life, to people who happen to ride the same train I do when they commute and prefer the same car. There are a lot of differences between how I might interact with the former and the latter, and what I might share with them.
At one level they are both 'friends' (as defined to be 'not unknown', 'not threat') but my buddy from Junior High is a 'lifetime friend' and the person on the train is 'a friendly person who rides the same train I do'.
In today's connected world, both of them might want to be 'friends' on facebook. In my actual life they are 'different' kinds of friends. And of course that friendship changes over time, I may develop a deeper relationship with the person who rides the train, I may drift apart from my childhood friend, but none of the subtleties are expressible in the vocabulary of 'friendness' on Facebook.
I've chosen to link with social friends on Facebook and people with whom I've worked professionally on LinkedIn, but I don't generally 'LinkIn' with friends who I'm not going to interact with in a professional context, nor 'friend' on Facebook people for whom I would not feel comfortable inviting over to share a beer by the fire pit and discuss comparative theology.
> At one level they are both 'friends' (as defined to be 'not unknown', 'not threat') but my buddy from Junior High is a 'lifetime friend' and the person on the train is 'a friendly person who rides the same train I do'.
The latter are "acquaintances." I don't think they're "friends" at any level. A social network that understood what acquaintances were would be pretty great.
> At one level they are both 'friends' (as defined to be 'not unknown', 'not threat')
I only treat "Facebook friendship" as this type of connection. The difference between a "lifetime friend" and "a friendly person from the same train" is defined by the set of experiences you had together, not by the value of a 32-bit integer. Note, that neither the "real life", nor Facebook platform provides this kind of explicit "friendship value". I choose to use both platforms in the same way - let the "friendship level" be defined by what we talk about, what we do together and what we feel to each other.
At one level they are both 'friends' (as defined to be 'not unknown', 'not threat') but my buddy from Junior High is a 'lifetime friend' and the person on the train is 'a friendly person who rides the same train I do'.
In today's connected world, both of them might want to be 'friends' on facebook. In my actual life they are 'different' kinds of friends. And of course that friendship changes over time, I may develop a deeper relationship with the person who rides the train, I may drift apart from my childhood friend, but none of the subtleties are expressible in the vocabulary of 'friendness' on Facebook.
I've chosen to link with social friends on Facebook and people with whom I've worked professionally on LinkedIn, but I don't generally 'LinkIn' with friends who I'm not going to interact with in a professional context, nor 'friend' on Facebook people for whom I would not feel comfortable inviting over to share a beer by the fire pit and discuss comparative theology.