(Untitled)

[shevek]

If according to the BBC and/or OED, "friend has been redefined by the Facebook generation to simply mean someone you regularly interact with online" then which word can we use for the concept we used to term "friend"? Or has the concept become obsolete?

Comments

[hennes]

Acquaintance?

Afterall if we redifine friend to mean 'casual acquaintance' then we have effectively freed up the latter word.

[cwol]

damn you pol - you beat me to it :)

[yady]

But is that right? I mean, there are people I do consider friends in the old sense who I haven't actually met face-to-face (though I hope to one day).

[swaldman]

"Friend", as far as I'm concerned.
I tend to refer to facebook "friends" as "facebook friends", or "acquaintances", unless they are friends as well.

[alexmc]

I see that Facebook (et al) have *added* a new meaning to the word, but not replaced the old one.

Sure it is confusing because if you use the word you might want the old meaning, or the FB meaning - but hopefully that is clear from the context.

It is a shame really. I think a lot of mental health issues would be helped if we remembered that a lot of "friends" were really just "acquaintances"

[tijntje]

Homie!