Let's Just Be Friends

When I was growing up, my dad used many Spanish proverbs to teach life lessons. One sticks out in my mind even to this day: Dime con quién andas, y te dire quién eres. Translated it means: Tell me whom you walk with and I will tell you who you are. In essence, who you choose to befriend says a lot about YOU.

Let's take that modern miracle of socialization called Facebook! Many of us have facebook pages and have been successful in re-connecting with old friends as well as making new friends. It's been used as a marketing and networking medium for many of us, as well. I'll go out on a limb and throw out a random stat: It is 90% good! But that 10% of bad stuff can be pretty bad. Scary, even.

I don't know about you, but I am Little Miss Friendly with just about anyone who wants to be friends, online. This practice has gotten me into some trouble, lately. First, not everyone is as "nice" as they want to let on. By nice, I actually mean... SANE.

Now granted, I haven't run into any honest to goodness bunny-boilers out there, but there have been some weird messages from people who may have confused the actual meaning of "Hi, nice to meet you! Let's be friends online and get to know each other!" for "Let's be BFF's forever and ever...pinky swear... YOU complete ME!!"

Like any healthy relationship, if things are taken slowly and progress steadily(read: sanely) for each party, then a solid friendship can be formed. But sometimes we realize that the most we can ever truly be to one another is a facebook buddy. And in this wacky world we live in, there IS now such a subgroup. A facebook friend, and nothing more.