Social Networking Sites vs Real Life

It's funny how before the age of computers, internet and social networks, we used to make friends the old fashion way. We would walk up to the girl/boy and either punch them in the arm, throw dirt at them, call them a stupid head and then become fast friends after that. I made MANY recess/playground friends that way. LOL!

As we grew up, we just pretty much walked in the cafeteria or hall way and just strike up a conversation and thus become life long friends. However, making friends is the hardest thing to do because it's hard to tell if you can trust someone or not.

Back in the day, if you had a crush on someone, you told your best friend. That best friend would usually do one of two things. One, go behind your back and flirt with said crush, or two, help you get/talk to said crush. If that "best friend" did number one, you would cry, call her a stupid head, say you never want to see her again and that you were no longer friends. Then one of two things happened after that, one she would say "fine, I didn't like you anyway" and walk away and never talk to you again become a life long enemy; or two, "I'm so sorry please forgive, gals before pals?" And thus, BFFs again.

Sometimes, it takes years to develop a true friendship, a friendship that can withstand the boys, crushes, parental disasters, high school, college, greek life, etc. And even longer to trust that friendship to last past college years. But sometimes, after so many years goes by, something happens and you see the "true colors" come out and you stop being friends. Something so horrible that it just can't go past the years of friendship.

But there are those RARE true friends that stand behind you, no matter what. They never leave you, they never hurt you (well they do but it's always something mendable), they always are there for you when you need a shoulder, or an ear, or even a kidney at that! They are there through the worst of the worst relationships, they are there through the best of relationships, they are there through the "children years" and even become "aunts" or "godmothers". They are just there through thick and thin.

That's the real life version of "social networking." But let's face it. We are in the 21st century. It's so much easier and faster to meet new people, make new friends and even to get stalkers and enemies! But what's even crazier is how that best friend you've known since 1st grade, or even the friend you've known for 10 years, 5 years or 2 months, becomes an enemy almost overnight! Social networking sites weed out the fake friends at warp speed where as before it would take almost a lifetime to figure out.

So is social networking good or bad? I think I'd like to know who my true friends are, but for some reason, it just doesn't seem natural to find out your true friends through a social network. So since we are in the age of technology and emails and instant messaging, we just have to take it in stride. But it is sad though.

Now in the real life when a friend turns out to be a "fake" friend, we usually just ignore them, made talk smack about them and be done with it. Move on. But with social networking, people take it to the EXTREME!!! They will backstab you, change profile names or make up new identities and try to befriend you or your friends and try to get some dirt on you, etc. Ok, this is just childish... no beyond childish, because I don't know of any 1st graders who do that! Seriously, if you don't want to be someone's friend anymore then just let it be. Delete them, ignore them, and go about your merry little way. If you want to reconcile with that person, well, do it tactfully. I know that for the person on the other end, they are shocked, yes, hurt, yes, but they move on. They just think "ok, so and so doesn't want to my friend anymore, that's ok, I have other friends." And they never think anything of it anymore. At least that's how it should be, unless of course we're talking about anti-social behavior here, but that's a whole other issue which we won't go into.

So the moral of this blog is: If you don't want to be my friend, fine, but leave everyone else out of it!