"We have so many *friends* online that we need a new word for the true ones..."
This has been an advertising claim of a German newspaper and it hit the nail on it´s head. Recently I was looking for the English translation for the German word "Bekannte" and it´s "acquaintances". This word I have rarely seen it in the internet, obviously it´s not used very often. I wonder why.
The word acquaintance seems to be a proper term for people we hardly no in person if at all but we see/meet everyday somewhere online, via emails, Facebook or all other networks. The only network I have encountered so far where someone can distinguish between different "levels" of relationships is Plaxo.
Then I searched now for the official definition of the word "friendship". And I have found some interesting stuff in the wikipedia archive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship (English)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekannter (German)
The articles explain different cultural definitions/background of friendships. Intensity versus number of friends... etc. The words honesty, truth and trust play a big role....
In a way it´s great not to rank people, but to name someone a friend is not much of a compliment anymore and dismissing someones request for a link becomes sometimes almost an enmity declaration...
Strange world...
Antje
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