What is facebook anyway? I used it for a while but when I realised that people just blathered on about "breaking a nail" or stuff like that, I just thought......omg, am I so strange or are they strange?
Before the internet, people had limited social mixing opportunities. Now, people can spend a long time seeing/checking out friends of friends on social networking sites. You could not do this in real life, which is far more important for real socialisation (if you can do that, which I'm not too good at or just not interested in).
The online world has created some good and some bad things.
Good is information spread and learning, (sites like this for instance.....what would people do without them, rely on local SOCIAL support groups...it is not always possible is it?) if you know where to look and how to analyse the data.
Bad is someone who you totally don't know, looking at your profile, thinking about you in ways which you may not think healthy (for any reason) and obsessing about you....I think that, the less your life profile, the safer you are..
Some people want to be noticed, with the result that one day they encounter someone who makes them wish they were never ever noticed again.
Of course, referring to dating etc, what do you feel is safer: going to a pub, nightclub where you can see how someone behaves or dealing with online.
Anyway, about friends....
I'm not sure what a friend is to be honest.
If someone lives next door to you and you see them for chats, hobbies, every day, for years, without fail, thats great.
However, how is the friendship affected when they are 1, 10, 50, 500, 5000 miles away permanently?
Does it affect your friendship status?
I have a saying: The less I see of people, the less I need to see of them, whereas the more I see, the more I like to see. (only if I like them as people of course)