CATEGORIZE... ME!

In a virtual platform which is mainly social such as second life -this also applies to Facebook, twitter and the wide array of choices people have nowadays to both socialize and make new friends-, the term “friend” has been somewhat abused and in my opinion, taken lightly.

I am the type that person that tends to categorize pretty much everything, in my head everything must have a name and a specific use, this also applies to people I interact with on a daily basis. Let’s have a look at the three main categories I have for people around me -this does not include family members, they already have a place in your life-

The “Person”: There is one or two people in your life that have your complete, blind and undivided trust. I call them the “person”, simply put is that one person you would call if you killed someone and wanted help with hiding the body. Who would you call first and foremost for this very task?, well, that’s your person.

Secondly you have your friends, no real name tag here. They interact with you daily, worry about your general well being, remember your birthday, know your home phone number and things of the sort expected from friends. In second life and facebook and the other various platforms, these are the people that actually KNOW you and talk to you OFTEN.

The third category, the “acquaintances”: These are the people you randomly talk to and have met through either work, at a social or are simply friends of friends. You bump into them seldomly and some may be under the wrong impression that they are “friends” with you. Careful though, all friends in the second category can fall back into the acquaintances one, all it takes is a drastic reduction on the actual interaction and they gradually fade into this very slot.

What brought this today? Well this is just a reflection on how we immediately call “friends” to mere acquaintances and collect them even as pokemons -yeah, I have 200 friends on facebook and 300 on second life! god I am so popular!-, but think about it carefully, how many on that legion of “friends” actually know your full name, phone number or let alone your favorite meal?. Then we are surprised and shocked when acquaintances categorized by ourselves as “friends” don’t live up to the category -they are not your friends, they are acquaintances so they act as such-

I might sound cold to categorize human interaction in such a way but Randolph G. did say once  ”Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget”

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls