Friends, How Do You Define Friend? Options

[Mitcea]

For over a year I was senior staff on another website. Recently I quit due to continued abuse from some of the members. While there I had written many articles, interviews and tutorials. This one in particular poses some interesting questions. It seems many here are "friends" and it makes me curious.

Please read and give your thoughts on "Friends". Thank you.

Friend (noun):
A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
How do you define friend?
_______________________

When you meet someone there is always this new world of possibilities that opens. All kinds of opportunities present themselves for what could develop between two people.

Will you have lots in common? Will you learn new and wonderful things from one another? Will you even like each other? Will it develop into more than just a casual acquaintance? Will it be more than just friends? The only limits to this are what the people place on the encounter.

In life we all need relationships. Not necessarily “love” relations, but friendships. Who would want to go through life knowing you will never have a friend, confidant, pal or buddy? How boring life would be without our friends. No one to tell secrets to, share hopes, laugh with, care about, cry to, listen to, be there for the good bad and everything in between. That is not the life for me.

Does it matter what your friend looks like? Not usually the case. Otherwise who would tell you not to wear the striped shirt with the plaid pants? How about the smartest? That would get very boring if we could not learn from our friends. Or the skinniest? Don’t know about everyone else, but I really dislike skinny people . So why did you pick your friends? Did you really pick them or did it just happen?

Friend to me is a confidant. Share points of view on some things, others you disagree on. You have similar values and core beliefs, most of the time. There is a commonality to most things with my friends. If I were to gather all my friends at one time, in one room it would be a good time for all. They would all get along so well!

Included in that group would have to be some of the people I have meet online. These are persons who have touched me and my life in some way, and left it better than it was before, better richer and more interesting.

That brings me to my question; No matter how long or how well we know someone why do we discount our friends “online” from our friends off line (real life (RL) as some say)? They are “real”. The live, breath, have lives and are human just like you. Is it because we do not see them it makes it imaginary? When did we become so rich in friends we could dispose of some?

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote:
Friends
Many people will walk in and out of your life,
but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
To handle yourself, use your head;
to handle others, use your heart.
Anger is only one letter short of danger.
If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
if he betrays you twice, it is your fault.
Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.
He, who loses money, loses much;
He, who loses a friend, loses much more;
He, who loses faith, loses all.
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
but beautiful old people are works of art.
Learn from the mistakes of others;
you can't live long enough to make them all yourself.
Friends, you and me....
You brought another friend....
And then there were 3....
We started our group....
Our circle of friends....
And like that circle....
There is no beginning or end....

How do you define friend?

[Enslaved]

Don’t know about everyone else, but I really dislike skinny people .

This skinny person dislikes you.

[Mitcea]

That as you can see was meant as a joke. Hence the wink smilie behind it.

[Snugglebum the D...]

I find that the people who are my closest and dearest friends are the ones that you can forget to call for months on end and then when you do call, it's like you saw them just yesterday. No recriminations for forgetting to call. Just laid back and happy to be chatting.

I think that makes people who you speak to online equally as valid as any other friend that I may have. In fact, I speak to some people here more often than I speak to people I've known forever.

Is that odd?

[spiffilicious05]

This is how I define my friends:




As long as they can make me do this I don't need to know anything more!

[Jaq]

Friend: Someone that doesn't force me to override my natural lazyness to take the time and effort to kill them.

[vicrawr]

Most people on the forums.

[the lil' pie...]

like trina, anyone that does this or this or this
and someone that likes to dress up with me as
hehe. i just love people in general!

[franken-sarah]

To me friends are people that are: reliable, honourable, trust-worthy, funny and caring - the rest are acqaintances!

[jicama]

a friend is someone that you can feel perfectly comfortable saying "nobody likes you" to, to which they will smile and say "i hate your guts and hope you die" back.

a friend is someone who you can argue with for over four hours about something stupid and trivial.

a friend is someone whom you can trust to tell you when you have something caught in your teeth.

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

people i'm comfortable to be myself around

[Fluffy]

One who is similar to me, yet still very different, one who is kind to and respects me, and one who will always be willing to forgive and forget, that would be the perfect friend for me. But, no one being perfect, being similar to that (well, sometimes even nothing like that) is okay with me.

[Sir Maxerpopple]

I have different circles of friends that all play different roles. My two closest friends are of incredible importance to me. One is my emotional support, my confidante, someone whom I love deeply. Unfortunately we aren't speaking right now, all my fault. My other very close friend is my intellectual friend utmost. We will have a conversation on moral objectivism and then it immediately change to art history, to ancient civilizations. We are very alike, we have a great time.

The rest of my friends don't provide an emotionally supportive role, but many provide various intellectual roles as well as simply a good time. My different friends provide different specialities intellectually, we are quite an odd bunch together.

And here's my word of advice to all of you, never do anything to jeopardize a friendship. I did and regret it every day. I can only hope she'll forgive me. Never do it. Ever. Keep yourself in check. Your friends are your most important thing you have. Never lose them.

[Tigersong]

A friend is someone who will clean up the puke.

[TigerLily013]

Someone who is close to me, understands and respects who I am without judgement of negative thought. Someone who is trustworthy, and will be by my side abnd vise versa. I love my friends.

[Tigersong]

A friend is also someone who you can make sounds like a musk ox around, and they won't judge you. To your face at least.

[gerbilfromhell]

There's two kinds of friends:

1.) The kind of person that you're friendly with, like to talk to and hang out with, but isn't exactly a 'true friend'. That's just a generic definition. This kind of friend could also be someone you trust, someone you've known all your life, or just about anything as long as you don't consider him/her a 'true' friend.

2.) A 'true friend'. The only way I can define this is someone that you consider to be a true friend and who's friendship never seems like work (there're always times for people who aren't 'true friends' where the friendship seems like work). There's plenty of other things that make a 'true friend', but they're all so different from person to person. The only other thing I can think of is that you trust that friend completely. These friends, on the other hand, are generally very few and far between.

[cUt3 KiTYgUrL]

a fiend is someone u can tell wat to do and they wont not do it. also they half to be relly funny!!

[Enslaved]

"True friends stab you in the front." - Oscar Wilde.

[Alaric]

Don’t know about everyone else, but I really dislike skinny people .

don be hatin just because we have high matabolism... not our fault.

I don know how to define a friend because i never been able to have a "True friend" because the longest i've know someone is 3 years(in person.. i've known someone i never met for like 6) But i guess it could be someone who will never backstab you, tell your secrets or pressure you into anything. If you fight with a firend you should be able to make up if they are a good one, if not, then it wasn't a good friendship.. i guess.