Friends vs Acquaintances

People throw the word friend around too lightly. Whoever is reading, you can call me out on this about your personal opinion on friends and acquaintances.

Ever since I was young, I've met many people that have come and gone. I called them friends. But were my connections with them really what you define friendship? To be precise, the actual term is acquaintance. People tend to get offended by this word and hardly ever use it in social surroundings. Heck, even social networking sites like myspace and facebook let you add and label people as "friends" and not "acquaintances." To be honest, I'd be offended if someone was to tell me that I'm their acquaintance and not a friend. There's such a heavy emphasis on word choices we make that we as a society end up using the wrong term in order not to offend anyone. I'm also at a lose with my viewpoint on friends vs acquaintances. I understand the differences between both concepts. It's easy for me to say if a person or a group of people I hang out with are friends or acquaintances. In practice, I consider them friends even though we have nothing in common. Actions speak louder than words, I guess.

True friendships are born out of time, experience and the emotional connection that you feel towards an individual. A friend is someone who has built a deep connection with you and developed mutual trust, support and effort rather than circumstances. A friend is someone who accepts and appreciates you for who you are. That's the very definition of friendship. In society, we made this term into a superlative we now refer to as "best friend."

Acquaintance: another word literally being erased in modern language and buried in the graveyard dictionary of dead words. Our society is so politically correct and always wants to please everyone that we assigned this unique word a negative connotation. Acquaintance has been replaced by friend. Friend has been replaced by "best friend." Call me a cynic. I find it as another example of the bastardization of the English language. There are just some people that I would rather call an acquaintance, granted a negative connotation is in place. Call me hypocrite. I'm just a hypocrite like everyone else. The only difference: I acknowledge the difference.

Despite all this, I believe you can turn an acquaintance into a true friend. That's what making friends is about. Nobody starts out as friends. You start out as acquaintances. It is up to you and that individual if you want to further this connection from acquaintance to friend. so many "good acquaintances" disappear as soon as some experiences real problems. Sometimes, people are so involved with so much personal stuff that they fail to see their true friends. People who stick around you no matter what the circumstances are your true friends. These are the people we remember and appreciate the most. Without even realizing it, you have a friend.

As a hypocrite of my own volition, I consider myself to have many friends and a few best friends. In reality, I'd rather just have fun with them. We put too much emphasis on labels.

I'm done.