Friends

I remember a verse in a song that said "Friends, how many of us have them?". Well in today's world you can have as many as you want. Just go to any of the social network sites and look. For example, my grand daughter who is only thirteen, has a facebook page and 136 friends. I find it hard to image that she even knows that many people, let alone can call all the ones she does know as "friends". My wife, who is very sociable, is probably up six hundred between facebook, twitter, and linkin.  That is probably low in today's terms. Even me, who didn't get a cell phone until my wife and daughter conspired to get me one for a birthday gift (they pay the bill), now have over one hundred friends.

As I grew up I know alot of people in the neighborhood, in school, on the job, conducting work (I was a retail salesman) and just from being out and about. However, I have only had a few, of what I call  friends.  Maybe my definition is too narrow. To me a friend is someone you have grow up with experienced things together. These are also people who, as thee  bible says, "will do thee good." They are there for you, not sometime but all the time, and are always looking to do thee good. No self serving motives. Here are some tell tale signs of a person not being a friend:  Have they been to your home?  Do they know you children's names? Have they met  you spouse or relatives? Have you gone places for fun together? Would they come to your assistance in a time of trouble? Have you know them more than ten years? If you they were to stop keeping in touch, would you?

Someone said that "if you show me your friends, I'll show you your future". The Internet lets it all hang out there. And once it's out there its forever out there somewhere. Many people will make decisions based on who your friends are there, and what they are saying. I personally do not feel the need to talk to everyone I know and let them know how I am doing. Is it really important to let all your friends know that you having a bad day if they cannot help you make it better? Some of the people I see on facebook and twitter are pretty bitter while others are overjoyed by the simpliest of things.

I saw on TV (yes I still watch the evening news)  the person who was on facebook conversing with "his friends" during a hostage situation with the police. This went on throughout the crisis, which did not end well for him. Then there was the sports figure who was on a blind date tweeting negative things about his date while she was in the  ladies room. Little did he know that one of her girlfriends saw the tweet and sent them to her in the bathroom. Someone once told me "if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all." That definitely would have applied here.

Don't get me wrong I think facebook and twitter are both great social networks when used  reasonably. Being able to keep in touch with real friends and associates in the manner, is head and shoulders above the old school methods of phone calls and get togethers.