The Friends Thing

[oceana]

No, I'm not going to say what everyone else has said already, one time or another.
I just came across a little article in news, about lj_serialadder. You know, the one that was friending everyone a while back. Anyway, the article says:

"It's a joke emphasizing people's concerns about how the "Friend of" label is bad, and they want a difference between friends/reading/trust/know-in-real-life/etc."


You know what? I like this friends thing. I do NOT want a friends/trust/know-IRL ect list. That's what filters are for.
What, do they seriously believe that someone has that many online friends? That I love and like and most of all know the 161 people I have friended?
Oh, don't misunderstand me, I love all of you for some reason, but let's be real: most of you are not my "friends" in the usual way. You are my LJ friends! That is soemthing totally different! I wouldn't want to miss you for the world, and yet: if someone unfriends me, I don't shed a tear. I would, in real life. This is not.
And I, for one, have no trouble distinguishing between real life and online life.

The issue I have with this friends/trust/know-IRL etc. thing is not only that I don't need it, but also that I don't want it. I don't want people to see how I categorise them. I don't see why it is necessary to put someone in a "lower" category because I don't know him IRL. That person knows it, I know it: why show the rest of the world?
If you don't like someone: don't friend them back. I friend back everyone who is not an axe-murdering psycho, because I want to get to know the people who read this journal. Isn't that what LJ is about?
Sure I have filters. Is there anyone who doesn't? Cause maybe I don't want to share my sex life with everyone. (don't worry if you have never read about my sex life: you are not excluded from it, I just don't have one). But I have, for example, a filter for all the German-speaking people on my friends list, should I ever want to make entries in German.
Personally, I don't use my filters for posting, but I understand everyone who does it. But even if I did: it is nobody's business how and why I'd use filters. If you feel excluded, feel free to comment and get in touch with me. (so you can see that my life really is that boring, and that I'm not excluding you from the juicy parts).

I joined LJ to get to know people, to talk with people from all over the world. And I have found some wonderful people via LJ, whom I talk to via comments and whose entries are fun to read everyday (yes, I am looking for at all of you). On the other hand there are people whom I don't know at all, whom I have never talked to. Maybe I read their journals for the fic, or the pretty pics of naked men. (which reminds me that most of you don't post enough pics of naked men.)
But under which one of these categories you fall? Why don't we keep that between you and me.
I really don't see how it would be useful to anyone, to me, my friends list, or to other people who may come across this journal and be interested, to see if I trust someone, if I am a "friend" of someone, or if I know someone in real life.

This was your Thursday afternoon rant, thank you for your attention. You may now return to your regular schedule.
Talk to me, dammit! ;-)