"We have diluted the meaning of friend to virtually nothing", Hal explained at the Symposium. This goes hand and hand with connection with low expectation. I think the overall most people involved with a social network want to connect with new people but like the fact that they don't have to commit to a real friendship with this new person. If their new friend posts a facebook status saying, "Had a bad day", they aren't obligated to call up that person and see if they want to grab a drink to cheer them up or sit down and talk about what happened. Instead, they can simply take a glance at that and go on with their day.
Looking at peep culture in a different aspect than connection with low expectation, it does in fact give us an opportunity to share our REAL stories. When we meet new people and build relationships, we don't necessarily give them the complete 4-1-1 on our whole lives. For example, the female blogger who talked on her blog about her obsession with being spanked. You aren't going to explain over dinner with a friend that you just love to be spanked. "Hey..by the way..spanking turns me on". It may be just me, but I think people may take that the wrong way. But on her anonymous blog where she didn't indentify herself, she got responses and comments that were genuinely interested in her and could relate to her. No, those people that responded to her weren't her BFFs (best friends forever) but they were people who felt that they could relate to her and she may have in fact, impacted someone's life by just feeling relatable or giving them the confidence to be more open.
So in conclusion, I think that the word friend has been diluted to a certain degree through social networks, but I also feel it has given people the opportunity to open up anonymously to express themselves completely. May be it could be considered some what therapeutic?
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