Who is a Friend??

 It is safe to say that the term friendship or the use of the word friend, carries a different meaning now than it did a few decades back. I don't know know how others who were born before technological advancements - especially those born before the new millennium - would describe who a friend is, but for me, what i do remember is that a friend meant someone who lived next door to our house, attended the same school or shared the same class/desk with, a friend of friend or a child to my parents' friends and so on. In short, a friend was someone known personally, interacted/played with on a regular if not daily basis.

There is a plethora of definitions out there when it comes to talking about who a friend is. The Oxford dictionary puts it this way, "a friend is a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection; typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations. Going by this definition, what it means then is that social media platforms like Facebook have it all wrong when it comes to describing a friend. What do i mean by this, well, take for example, someone has two hundred 'friends' and half of those are family members. The platform puts everyone under the same umbrella  which is contrary to what the definition by Oxford dictionary says about who a friend is.

What advancements in technology and the subsequent rise of social media have done is make life somewhat easier and faster. Sharing of information and forming connections is at a record. At the click of a button 'friendships have been made regardless of time and distance. Old friends are able to keep in touch and share memories. This is a good, unlike the olden days when someone had to physically see their friend to find out about their wellbeing or write a letter - which would days or weeks to reach the receiver and the other way around.

The negative side of technology on the definition of 'friendship' is; it has somewhat diluted what it truly means to be a friend. As we rely more and more on social media, we tend to pay little or no attention to our real friends. Most people are 'in love' with the idea of friendship as portrayed in the media while neglecting the real thing.