Friends. Taste the word.

Does it describe your Facebook contacts? What about your Twitter followers - or your LinkedIn contacts.

My guess is that when you think closely about these environments, very few are really friends in the original sense.

Why the use of the word Friend? Why not use contact or acquaintance. The worst offender is Facebook. Most of my real friends are in my Facebook contact list. A lot of people I know professionally are in my contact list - but they are not my friends. The only real distinction on Facebook is if you have access to my full or my limited profile.

If I told someone that they are an acquaintance instead of a friend - would they be offended?

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