This is a response to the one-word prompt “Fake” by “The Daily Post.”

There are a lot of fake things in the world. There is the fake product that only pretends it is the same as another. There is the fake piece of art or duplicate painting, this can be for ill or good depending on the who and why the duplicate was made, regardless it is a fake. However, you do not just find fakes in objects but in relationships too. More specifically, in friendships. Dictionary.com defines a friend in six ways.

I want to focus on the first and second, which is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard and the second, a person who gives assistance. Compare these two definitions to the sixth, which is a person associated with another as a contact on a social-media website. That right there is the difference between a real and a fake friend.

A friend, a “true friend” is not only someone who you can talk to and share experiences, but that will be there for you not only in the good times but the bad as well. He/she is your friend despite your many faults. This is not so with friends made of social media and the like. They befriend you because of the content and the looks of your profile page and what you post. But they don’t truly know you, or you them and as such cannot be relied on for anything.

A “true friend” will not abandon you in your time of need, but will be there for you even if it is just as a sounding board to get everything/something off of your chest. A fake friend i.e. the Facebook friend will befriend you one second and unfriend you the next. So that is another thing about the true friend, a lot more continuity and stability. Yes, you can lose  “true friends” from time to time, but that is usually due to factors such as you both outgrew each other, or you just grew out of touch due to moving away. Cases in which a lot of times you can reconnect years later and when you are friends, they can be counted on.

Not to say that all “friends” that you make in person are actually the healthy kind. No matter how you make or meet people, you need to be careful who you would call a “true friend.”Friendships no matter the form require more than just communication and “knowing.” Actually, not all forms of friendship are created equal, some friends you will trust with one thing that you would not trust with another. But you would never truly trust nor could a “friend” made on a social medial website.

So the next time you find yourself wanting to make more friends, don’t settle for the social media friend  but a real friend. One that will be there for you in the “thick and thin”, that will tell you when you have done something wrong as well as right. A real friend is also physically there for you and not just a number and words on your Facebook profile. The importance of this point cannot be understated! As human beings, we are social creatures that need contact with others that just isn’t filled by social media “friends.”