Ritsuko's definition of friendship

Friendship is invisible, so it's hard for us to define it. But nobody would
say it is not important in our life. This relationship is absolutely
fantastic and essential for us.
I remember that my teachers told me that to make friends could be more
important than to study even though school is where we should study. Also,
my parents have told me to treat friends very importantly, otherwise, my
life will become poor and sad even though I will become either rich on
clever.
From these experiences from adults around me, I think that friendship is
our treasure. If we can trust our friends, we can make our life happier and
our hearts warmer. Without them, we would be lonely. Friends are ones who
help us when we have trouble, who make us smile and who cry together when
we are very sad. Friendship never breaks and ends even if we have an
argument because it is immortal.

Sharifa comments on an article she has read

Once I read an article about " Friends and Best Friends " by Myra Gormley. She said that there are different types of friends. Our true friends we can count the number of on the fingers of one hand. Other friends are like our coallegues in school or work, our neighbours and our acquaintances. In my point of view, each type needs particular diplomacy to win and influence them.
If you're considering to win true friends, you have to understand their characters and behaviuors. Your true and best friend is nothing more than a mirror you can see yourself at. About the second type, they become our friends directly. You find yourself usually in touch with them and with time they become friends although your relationship with them isn't too deep. If you want to win them, try to understand their outstanding conducts. It isn't necessary to overlap your behaviour. Try to talk with others about what they like and select relevant and exciting subjects to talk about. Don't forget to respect them, respect their opinions, be a good listener and smile. Make them feel they're important for you.
Last but not least, it also depends on yourself if you can influence people or not. Winning friends and influencing people is an art. You can't live without contact with people st you have to (...unfinished! EB)

Internet friendships by Sally

First of all, I want to say I totally agree with this topic.

For example, on Facebook, we can always see the blank on the right side which told us to become a friend with someone who has mutual friends with us. We will often confirm this person because it doesn't matter to our Facebook profile. And most of us would like to have more friends on Facebook. Because it's a good way to know more information and news about people you might know. I believe most of us will do that. We prefer something new.

Another example comes from the chatting rooms. In China, we have chat software called QQ. It's quite like MSN but people's accounts are numbers. Just like a mobile phone ni=umber. So if you go to your friends' QQ space, others will see your number. And they can join your chat list. We have a chatting group which was established by one of our friends. In the group, we can see everyone's number. And some people will ask ! many people to become friends, even if the just have met once.

Why do people like doing this? In my opinion, I think the reason is quite simple. Because it's on the internet. All activities are finished on the net. So people will think that is no big deal. And they can talk easily to people they are not familiar with.

In a word, I think we will absolutely add many 'false friends' on our chatting list or online networking. And I suppose maybe when you chat more, some of them will become your good friends.

What does Naoko have to say about "false friends"?

Now, the internet is one of the essential things for our life, because we can get information easily, you can reserve something which you'd like to buy, and you can communicate with people in chat rooms. However, I think the networking or chat room become a danger sometimes. For instance, We have the the word which is "On-tomo" in Japan. It's an abbreviation of "Online-friends". It means some friends who you meet on the internet, haven't met them actually. Recently, there is serious incidents which is that some people were killed by their online-friend. Firstly, they were just online-friends, but one day the criminal offered to meet the victim. The victim thought he was a nice person, so the victim decided to meet the criminal. Eventually, the victim was killed by the criminal who thought he was okay. I think if the internet hadn't been developed like this, the victim wouldn't have been killed. Unfortunately, we can't stop developing our lives, so we have to be careful and to protect our lives by ourselves, even if we have an overabundance of "false-friends" these days.

Read Jakob's thoughts on Internet network communities

Internet network-communities like ‘Facebook’, ‘Bebo’ and ‘Myspace’ are tremendously popular these days and a phenomenon of the 21^st century. But do they make us have more false friends than when we only had the phone to talk to others or actually had to meet people to talk to them?

I don’t believe that is the case. Sure, when we use sites like ‘Facebook’ we will add people to our friend list and will make them so-called ‘friends’. Often we don’t even really know these people or we have only briefly talked to them before. To put it bluntly, you wouldn’t normally call them your friends. However, people using these sites know that and would seldom call all people on their friend list a friend. Some sites call these lists contact-lists, which probably describes the issue more accurately.

As a result, I don’t think we make false friends on the Internet just because they are perhaps called ‘friends’, although they simply aren’t. Sometimes they are just contacts. After all, the normal rules or habits of how we connect with friends apply to Internet-communities in the same way as they do to our daily lives, we will only chat with a person we are really interested in and that we would call, or would like to call, our friends.

"The best way to win friends and influence people"by Ahmed

Ahmed

" Who is the best friend?". A question we hear from all people

when we meet sometimes. So how did I get that friend?, there

are different ways to win friends and influence people. If you

want a friend or to change people minds you should have a

good impression and nice behaviour when you talk or do

anything with them. Also you should smile every day even

when pain takes over you. This smile will change people and it

will make new friends, maybe it will change your life too.

Besides, you should not criticize every move which people do,

If you do that you will never win friends. I think the most

important way to win friends is to be altruistic, so that you will

give to your friend or do something for him that you are need.

This way will gives you a lot of friends just you can chose and avoid some of them as well.

In the end, I hope everyone had good behaviour with people so

he or she can win friends and influence people. Also to be

altruistic is the way that I think it the best. These ways will

change the world to the best and make good relationships between people.

Ahmed

Week 1 "Friendship" by Jackie

Jacqueline

Do you believe that due to chat rooms and online networking we have an overabundance of “false friends” these days?

“False friends” are friends who are not true. You do not know their true information like names, ages and occupations. They give you faux data about themselves because they do not want to show their identity for some reasons. Maybe he or she is a spy, for example.

Since the Internet has been in use, the boundary of our world has been widening. We get to meet more people from all over the world in forums, chat rooms, and blogs. Sometimes we are bored by the real world and start to look for fun online. That is when we begin to gain more friends. However, people tend not to show their real identity online since they do not want to take any responsibility. Therefore, what we gain are usually false friends.

Having too many false friends will not be a problem if we are careful. It is already a trend that people prefer showing fake information about them on the internet. It is not a big deal. What is important is the purpose of us using the Internet. If we simply use it for leisure, it is okay. But if we use it for seeking our other-half in the future, we will have to think again.

In conclusion, the Internet brings to us lots of false friends, but it depends on how we use it to decide whether it is a problem or not.