Friends vs. "Friends"

Nowadays almost everyone either has a facebook account or knows someone who has a facebook account. In having this online profile it gives you the opportunity to personalize your own homepage and share pictures. Not only this you can comment on other's facebook "walls" and reconnect with old friends you have not seen since earlier years in your life. This new way of connecting with people has posed the question: are facebook "friends" really your friends? In some sense, no. You can become
"friends" with someone you merely just met at a party by simply looking up their account online. It's just one click away and you've added another "friend" to your collection. However, you can add your real life friends to your facebook as well and that is a great way to keep in touch more frequently with them. In the middle of the day while on your lunch break you can simply log into facebook and see updates from your friends. But is simply logging into  your account to check updates of your friends somehow making the friendship less valuable? I would say yes. If you want to know how your friend is doing simply pick up the phone and call them! Because I do not have a facebook account I can say this easily since I call my friends all the time. However, with the shift towards a more disconnected society it has crippled us into not desiring the simple task of picking up a phone and calling someone that we want to speak with. Many communication is done via internet or through another impersonal way that dwindles our connection with reality.