friend is a four-letter word

Remember those elementary school days when you used to count your friends? Even if the tally only totaled 10, you knew all the people included would at least share lunch with you.

That's not necessarily the case for the average 20- or 30-something. Why?

We live in an age of Friendaholism, according to this LA Times column. An excerpt:

The idea of friendship, at least among the growing population of Internet social networkers, is to attain as many of these not-really-friends as possible. Hence, the alcoholism analogy, which I don't make lightly. Like cheap wine, "friends" provide a high that can only be sustained by acquiring more and more of them. Quantity trumps quality.

Naturally, Facebook has cheapened my understanding of "friend." Many times, I've attached the social networking "friend" label to someone without accompanying the request with any interpersonal dialogue.

Internet aside, I think you can't be too discriminating with the term "friend" once you reach adulthood. It's harder to make true, soulmate-like friends when you enter the workforce. So even your face-to-face friends might not necessarily line up with the ones you had in high school or college.

Confession time: Do you still count your friends?

(via Jezebel)