Friends Or Just Acquaintances?

So just before i logged out last night, i was sitting on Facebook like always reviewing the latest news feeds like i always do where i came to thinking about friends old and new.

As you grow up you meet lots of people in your life but how many of them can you actually call true friends and how many of them are just plain acquaintances that you have happened to meet, maybe spend a few years getting to know?

I have to admit when it comes to keeping in touch with people i must be one of the worst people on the planet for it, it's not that i don't want to or that i can't be arsed, it's more plain forgetfulness or something else gets in the way.. You know those moments where you sit down at the computer to write a e-mail or a message to someone or pick up your mobile ready to text someone and then something happens and it just goes completly out of your head? I have those moments all the time, but perhaps it's just me? Although im still a very firm believer that communication is a two way street, and it seems my "friends" are also as forgetful as i am.

I tried a few months back to get back in touch with people i knew at school and it is quite amazing how people change or haven't changed from the last time you met them, i mean i personally feel that especially from the time i left school that i grew up quite a bit (having kids will do that to you i guess) but i still feel that im the same guy i was back then, always ready for a laugh and a joke but at the same time i have other responsibilities aswell so perhaps some of things i would have done back then i cannot do now, it's not that i don't want to it's just the simple fact when you have children and a partner things like having fun to some extreames just can't happen.

But some of the people i got back in contact with have changed so much that now i probably wouldn't even communicate with them at all even back then, i mean even people i considered really close friends are like aliens to me now, of course people change, people grow up, they stop liking certain things and begin to like others just as i have but it just amazes me that someone you had so much in commen with could be so different only a decade later.

Most of my friends these days consist of people online that i play World Of Warcraft with, alot of people say that they aren't real friends and just people i know through a computer game and in some circumstances they are probably right, i have met quite a few people through the game and some of them gradually lost contact with over the years (bear in mind i've been playing WoW for 6 years now). I have even met some in "Real Life" as they call it and held events here at my house where the people i play with can come and have a drink, meet up with each other and have a good laugh. But it has become very apparent that these people are perhaps just people i know, since i have found that once the person has stopped playing etc that we just simply loose contact. Why? well i think it's because we no longer have anything in commen with each other.

However i have met some online that i would call dear friends, even some i have never even met in "Real Life" it's not that i don't want to meet them, it's just money and where they may live that gets in the way of this, but these people i know better than i know some of my own family members and vice versa. I mean we talk alot and not only about the game but troubles and other aspects of our lives, and we are always there for each other in times of need. These people i would personally class as real friends and not just people i know in a video game.

So what makes a friend? is it just the fact you know them? perhaps you have spent a few years with them at school or any other activity? It's a pretty damn good question.
I myself have came across alot of people in my time and considered them friends at that time, but now? i really don't know if that is what it was or not. If you loose contact with people for years, are they still a friend? or just someone you know?

Please feel free to leave me a comment below on your own thoughts and opinions. Perhaps i am misguided in my thoughts i really don't know but i would be very eager to see what other people's opinions and thoughts are on this.