I think social media is a great thing. There are so many obvious benefits to it, like keeping in touch with long distance friends and having the opportunity to expand our social spheres greater than ever before. Despite the assets social media has, it forces us to use terminology that actually contradicts its purpose.
The most common way of expressing online connections is with the terms “friends” and “followers.” Even though each website has their own terminology, it’s interesting how closely intertwined these words have become. The word "friend" has become equated with "follower", and vice versa. These words have become essentially interchangeable in the world of social media. It wasn’t long ago that the words friend and follower were completely separate—someone who followed your life was not necessarily your friend and your real friends may not follow every detail of your life. In fact, I would think that someone who “follows” you would have been perceived as actually being pretty creepy.
I think that the word “friend” is being used increasingly frivolously as a result of social media. It’s common for people on Facebook to have 500, 1,000, even 1,500 friends or more. I think it’s safe to say that many people haven’t even met everyone on their Facebook friends list, nor would they feel comfortable striking up a conversation with them. Generally speaking, people would not say they have 1,000 friends they talk to with some regularity and enjoy spending time with, and is that not essentially what a friend is?
One could argue that using the word “friend” in a social media context wasn’t meant to be treated as a friend in the realest sense of the word, but that the term has basically become slang to represent who you correspond with online. Although this is completely accurate, this alternative use of the word still takes away its true meaning.
Being a friend becomes less valuable because of the frequency with which the word “friend” is carelessly tossed around. Like most things in life, when something is used over and over again, it becomes less special. I think this is exactly what has happened with this word.
When it comes down to it, these friends and followers aren’t what the word friendship was meant to symbolize. A friend is so much more than a name on a list or a “like” every now and then, and it’s a shame that we’ve become desensitized to what a friend is. Social media is meant to bring us closer to people, but it can actually take away from the meaning of real relationships.
