These days the word “friends” hold a different meaning than it did before. People meet people and they instantly refer to them as friends. Social media also plays a big role in this.

The word “friend” in today’s society has lost its meaning and sentimental value for reasons that we may not comprehend.

Friends should be people you know on a deep level and have a sentimental connection with and not just a person you know a couple of things about.

The definition of friend is: One attached to another by affection or esteem.

If this is so, why do we refer to people we just meet as “friends.”

Some people may say that the problem started with social media and how it referred to people you connected to as friends.

Social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace have a button that is used to initiate a “friend request” that allows for anyone to try and engage with another user on the site.

People started connecting with strangers and referring to them as friends without any type of connection to them other than the website itself.

These days it’s more common for people to refer to strangers as friends, but how is it possible to become friends in an instant with someone you just meet?

It’s more complex than that, a friend is someone who you know personally and know intimate things about. It goes as far caring for that person’s well being.

You need to be able to relate to a person in order to understand them and be able to create a connection with.

People can’t just assume just because they exchange a few words they automatically become friends but this interactions lack connection.

Talking to a stranger may lead to a friendship but one has to take the time to build such a friendship in a way of getting to know each other in a more personal level instead of just a passing wave and smile when they happen to run into each other.

It also goes more deep than just the word usage but also the meaning.

A friendship doesn’t hold the same responsibility and affection as it used to. It may be because social sites to some extent pushed people to compete for a higher friend count allowing for false connections to begin.

The word friend could have different meanings to different people but the core of it is just to care and actually know that person to a deeper level than just their name, age and maybe even phone number.

We can blame society but we have to remember that we as people have to manipulate social sites and such to what we want to make out of them.

We as people need to start using the word the correct way instead of throwing it around like if it doesn’t hold any meaning.