Real friends versus Social friends: The blurred lines..

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So I still have a lot of pending friend request on Facebook (and to think I have been on that site 4yrs and counting)  and as I was about to click ‘confirm’ I thought ‘ how many of my Facebook friends do I know or do I really even interact with and those that I interact with, how many of them do I regard as ‘’tube friends’ or ‘ Bra friends’. Let me explain, bra for us ladies are VERY important, they give our boobs support through out our life time, in our saggy period we look to them to make us look hot and they sometimes, infact every time raise our self esteem (you know what I am talking about) ,they kip our heads up. The tube function I think is to create support too, yes! But it is a temporary kind of support. Its function can not be compared to the bra. Back to friends, there are different groups of "friends" that one can call friend (if you will) on social networks because the ‘Kaffy O and Philip O are now friends’ notification on the wall doesn’t necessarily mean they are ‘friends’, The three group of social network friends are: REAL FRIENDS: These are people that may be one's friends or family in actual life, they are people you see when you put down your device…NETWORKING FRIENDS: These are the friends that you keep on to contribute to your career, they are your work friends…UNKNOWN FRIENDS: These are the  "friends" with whom one has no relationship at all but you probably chat loads.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish them, there is some times a mix up as to who your real friends are and who is a just a contact. Saying someone is a contact sounds rude but the fact is that some are just for ornaments. Quoting Sherry Turkle  who defines herself as "cautiously optimistic", but expresses concern that distance communications may undermine genuine face-to-face spoken discourses, lessening people's expectations of one another. To be frank, I don’t get 10,20 missed calls anymore, I remember when I use to call my friend  a ‘business centre’  because people still believed in checking up on one another but now Facebook, Whatzapp, twitter, Instagram, Tumbir  etc. have lessened the need to do one-on-ones(that’s probably why all this cellular networks have promo on promos).

The question is what makes a true friendship anymore? As in, who are the real friends?  Is it whether or not the person knows your birthday , or how many hours you spend talking on the phone (new trend)? With all the ways we can communicate now —GChat, Facebook Messenger, etc  and with all the people on our bbm list, who really are those that give a fucc about us because some times it feels like everyone cares(hmmm), Is it possible to have friends who are purely for the chatting and the likes and others who are in real life? How does one not get confused, blurred lines and all….

When it comes to Gossip And Life issues ‘tube friends know all about your relationship drama and crushes, because you’ve been updating them for ages via your PMs and you have probably been asking them for advice .You feel comfortable talking to your ‘tube friends about all of your life issues because they know only what you tell them, and you could be making up all of your problems. Plus, you’ve already bored your real life friends about this stuff to death. Now you have a whole new audience but real life friends know you the best and are not scared to tell you about yourself. Sure, your online friends can offer a good opinion, but there is nobody like a real life friend to tell you when you need to get your shit together. A real life friend says things like, ‘you are in the wrong girl’, check yourself. A real life friend will make you feel good even when you’re feeling depressed about family problem or money problem or when you are going through a rough patch. An online friend can console you too, but just not the same way.

When it comes to company keeping ‘’tube friends’ are people you don’t really know but you met them once or twice through social networking on Twitter or facebook, or maybe you added them to your Facebook because you guys have a mutual friend or you like his abs or her ass

. A ‘tube friend is someone you know is available every time you see that little green dot next to their name when you log in or you get a ping or buzz from them, so you say hello. But sometimes it’s possible to have a ‘tube  best friend who you’ve never met before in real life, but who keeps you company when you’re bored or down. You talk to each other at least every day. You even have jokes that only you get and think about going out to visit them wherever they live, you know, to take things to the next step but as oppose to them Bra friends who keep you company when they can, when they’re not busy with something else or watching a favorite series (VPD)  (oddly enough that is ‘in real). ‘Tube  friends are  available whenever they have that promiscuous little green dot beside their names, but your Bra friends have things to do and you don’t always know what they’re doing or when they’re busy. The fact is that  even if you talk to your them online, you KNOW they’re Bra friends when they are ‘invisible’ and they will still start a conversation with mumu’

The ‘ something in between’ issue for’tube friends depending on the context in which you met this friend, there might still be some unresolved sexual tension between you two that has to be dealt with. Maybe you’ve made some sexual innuendos to each other, some sexual banter here and there *winks*. But even if you haven’t had those kinds of chats, if you ever do take your

friendship into real life and you meet  you run the risk of having unreleased sexual tension( lool, really) . You feel like you should just get together already!, you know, just to get it over with. After all, you’re not really strangers so it’s not really a day thing — you’ve been friend-ish for like 2yrs now! But for real Life Friends on the other hand, like do we really want to have a thing with our real life friends?  Maybe our friendships started sexual and got platonic somewhere along the way, either way I think not... Not that there’s never sexual energy between real life friends, but it seems like sexual energy between chummy friends you’ve never met before is implied or is it just me?!

With online friends you can watch your favorite TV series and dissect an episode  together, chat about everything that annoys you about the show ending. You can watch you music video or listen to their audio and review them together and the likes while chatting Not that I don’t do that with my real life friends, but  with online friends it is a new feeling,sexual tension or not,hehehehe,..it is fun!. With Real friends you can go out, do things that you both enjoy. it is not the same,trust me.

I am not saying chummy friends aren’t friends, I just don’t want people to get confused into thinking all friends on social medias are certified friend, I don’t want them thinking they should ignore day one friends and replace them with twitter,facebook and bbm friends. At the end of the day when you put down your phone, it is back to reality and back to real humans that you are absolutely sure of. There’s something irreplaceable about real……

image courtesy: Teggs

It is a blurry line between chummy and real friends, I can hear Patoranking in my head “Real recognize real” Be real to recognize real…..