It’s April 6, and I’ve started to interview my Facebook friends. I’ve visited five of them, but only asked two of them The Questions.
The first two interviewees were my brother, Daniel, and our buddy Chris. I had actually let the Project slip my mind when Chris remembered my latest status update on Facebook.
“So what are these five questions you have for every Facebook friend?” he asked.
It was Saturday afternoon and we were hanging out in the living room, as was our custom at the time. My brother, who owns the house, keeps telling Chris he should be paying rent because Chris basically lives here from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon (and sometimes longer) every week.
Daniel and I have known Chris for about eight years, I suppose. He’s my brother’s age, about three years younger than me, and the two of them met in high school. I met him shortly after, when he started to work at the old folks home where my brother and I were servers in the dining room. Chris used to come up with little raps about our job. “Little server, servin’ sherbet, looking up old ladies’ skirts like a pervert.” Goofy stuff like that.
My brother kept in touch with Chris after we all retired from working at the retirement home, but I didn’t. My brother would mention once in a while that Chris was still making rhymes, and had actually cut a CD with a friend over in Seattle. But it wasn’t until this past Christmas that I finally saw him again. Actually, it was a week or so before Christmas. I was living in Kingston, way out in the boonies but close to work, and was getting ready to move in with my brother. I came by one night to drop something off, and Chris was there. He and my brother were having a good time and I doubt he remembers our encounter. The next week, on Christmas night, I was all moved in and Chris and Daniel learned why rum and wine don’t mix well.
And then we didn’t see Chris for about two months. We had our own things going on and he had his. Chris lives on a stipend from the Army that, how should I put this? allows him to be free of the traditional encumbrances of employment. We were all friends on Facebook, though, so we could stay in touch.
Finally we met up with Chris again and started hanging out every weekend. He’s still really clever when it comes to rhyming, by the way. He and Daniel keep themselves busy with rap battles, but Chris usually wins.
So there we were, the three of us in the living room getting ready to watch the Final Four, and I had a chance to discuss the Questions with two of my Facebook friends. I grabbed my laptop and set to work.
The five questions I asked Daniel and Chris were:
1. Why are we friends on Facebook?
2. How do you define the word ‘friend?’
3. Why do you think people need friends? What do you need in a friendship?
4. What do you get out of Facebook or MySpace or other online “friendships?”
5. Are we friends or just Facebook friends? How come? And what’s the difference?
It’s possible that those questions will change as The Project develops. I won’t go through all of Daniel and Chris’ answers, just the most interesting ones.
Their answers to the first question were pretty obvious. “We’re related,” my brother said. Duh.
“Because I’m here every weekend,” was Chris’ response. “This is my weekend home.”
They both agreed that people have an innate need for companionship. Why? “People need someone to drink with and mack on hos,” was Chris’ explanation. He was only half joking.
As for the online friendships, they help us stay in touch with people we don’t get to see too often. But they also show the world how many “friends” we have and allow us to mass communicate and boast. Those Web sites are also just one more thing to keep us from being bored, Daniel said.
Shortly after we finished our discussion, one of Chris’ acquaintances knocked on the door. The events that followed gave me an idea for another question: What does someone have to do to lose that “friend” status?
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