I thought this article was an excellent example of how we might perceive "friends" online to be something they aren't. People online can choose to put what they want on their Social Media accounts, and can thus change how you think of them. If all a person did was put awesome looking things online, it would seem that they were a pretty cool person when in reality, they could have went way out of their way to make it look like that and actually have a very miserable life. I think its very important to have a face-to-face relationship with your true friends, and only then would I call them friends. If I don't have that type of friendship then I call online "friends" acquaintances. This article demonstrates how a person could mask their true identity, and I believe its worth noting.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lexi-herrick/11-things-we-fake-in-our-social-media-lives_b_7693182.html
Colby I competley agree with you here. Our perceptions of people on social networking lead us to believe people live totally different lives than they really do. They look different, they eat different foods, they have nicer pocessions, often times only on soical media sites though. When reading this article I could not help but think of the TV series Catfish where everything about a person on social media is fake. Is it just as obvious to you as it is me that the only thing we see on social media are the really good things about peoples lives? The "fake" or "exaggerated" things.
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