In a recent opinion piece in The Canberra Times, ABC TV Journalist and author Virginia Haussegger talks about the Facebook craze and the concept of ‘Facebook friends’.
Virginia expresses her views about the site’s use of the term ‘friend’, and how Facebook could be potentially devaluing what it means to have, and be, a real and sincere friend.
“Facebook has contorted the meaning of ‘friend’. And it has butchered the value of friendship,” she says.
“Now everyone can have plenty of cheap and easy friends, where the friendship requires no more effort than a ‘click to confirm’.”
I take Virginia’s point, and this is essentially true on the surface; but I’d like to think that a good percentage of Facebookers approach the issue with a healthy dose of perspective and common sense.
I certainly agree that there are several ‘hardcore’ Facebook junkies who live and die by the cyber-identities they’ve cultivated on Facebook and similar sites like MySpace. Similarly, I agree that some Facebookers – perhaps the more cyber-dependent Generation Y population - would carry a somewhat distorted view of what true friendship really means, through their continual and feverish acquisition of ’Facebook friends’.
However, speaking for myself and most of the people I interact with online, Facebook represents a quick and easy way to interact with a variety of people at once, and locate old friends and work colleagues. And, the more popular Facebook becomes around the world, the more effective it will be to expedite these functions.
In terms of the ‘Facebook friends’ convention, I can’t say I agree with Virginia that Facebook has “butchered” the ideal of friendship. In the end, it’s obviously a matter for users to ascertain whether the people listed in their Facebook friends catalogue are real friends or not. While Facebook is guilty of providing the platform for interaction, it ultimately can’t be held accountable for people’s own delusions or misconceptions about who their real friends are.
I’ve no doubt that some folks can become misguided in cyber-space when it comes to what’s real and what’s not. Surely, though, most of us can appreciate that sites like Facebook aim to make life a little easier from a social networking perspective, and that they are still an eternity way from being a holistic substitute for conventional face-to-face interaction in the physical world.
So, which is more real – face time, or Facebook?
For me, both are real. I think the key is understanding the limitations and defining characteristics of each, in order to keep everything in perspective and maintain useful and effective communication with others. 
Rob
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