ToJaFro wrote:
Imagine you delete your friend off of Facebook, Twitter etc. You lose their number and have no mobile phone... If this person would come to your home or place of work to find out what gives then they are a true friend.
That's a slightly difficult definition from my point of view, because anyone who is even remotely my friend knows I would absolutely hate it if they came to my door unanounced.
Leaving your definition aside for a moment, I would say I have three friends, but I don't see any of them more than maybe once a year (only one of them even lives in the same town as I do), I don't like phone calls so we don't do that either, and e-mail/Facebook maybe every few weeks or months. So it would take a very long time for it to occur to any of them that something was wrong if they didn't hear from me, because they don't normally hear from me either.
I'd define those three as friends because I'm sure I can trust them, I could probably call on them if I needed help (although I would absolutely hate to have to), and I would hope they could call on me if they needed something. But honestly, I can't say I feel particularly "close" to any of them. I just know they're good people who for some reason seem to like me enough to maintain these very distant friendships, and I try to appreciate them for it.
I know and have known plenty of these strange people who seem to want to be friends but then don't respond when I make what is for me a massive effort to keep in touch. I don't think I'll ever not be baffled by this, but I've learnt to just shrug it off. (I'm in my 40s, so it's taken me long enough.)