technoculture314-09

When discussing about online social websites it is not surprising to find that Facebook comes first to almost everyone's mind nowadays. I thought it would be interesting to look a certain type of friends on FB that are referred to as ‘temporary friends’ and discuss about it in relation to the traditional real-life definition of the term friend as an example of how these social network sites have changed aspects of our social relationships.

'Temporary friends' are ones which you add to your friends list for the game Restaurant City. As you only get your free bonus ingredient to upgrade your dishes on your first visit to a friend's restaurant, numerous groups are now offered on Facebook for you to join and find tens of thousands of people who you can add to become ‘temporary friends’. The rules are said upfront: you each to get the free first visit stuff, and then you delete each other right afterwards.

[The group Restaurant City Temporary Friends' discription reads:
Want more friends for Restaurant City, but don't want to clog your friends list? You've come to the right place! This group is for those who would like to make new friends in Restaurant City for the sole purpose of collecting ingredients. Please leave enough time for your new friends to collect their ingredients before removing them from your friends list.]


While making "temporary friends" on Facebook seems so normal and common now, it is actually kind of funny when you think about the phrase. It should be rather weird and awkward if you were to make friends in real life when knowing it's only going to be 'temporary' wouldn't it? Also, I would say that to me ‘friends’ are those which share an emotional bond and commonalities with me, and I would disgust those who would come to me in requesting to make ‘friends’ just for material gain and interests, but somehow this case on FB seem to be okay..?

I believe that Facebook has extended and modified what the term 'friend' means. Anyhow, most of the people on my friend list are still generally that of people who I really know in real life, and I would probably regard myself as quite a heavy Facebook addict as it has now become a habit logging in first thing after I open my computer. I have only been a member for just about a year so far, and I can hardly remember how my social life was like before I became used to having Facebook in my life.