Essay On Kinds Of Friends

According to experts, having a diverse variety of friends is necessary for everyone. We have different aspects to our personality and at times, we need different kinds of friends to meet their needs. Whenever we have a need we tend to search for it in others. So the kind of friends we usually steer toward is based on the side of our personality that feels left behind and a bit neglected. Another reason we have different kinds of friends is because our bond and commitment varies from one kind of friends to the other, starting from the most casual friends. We categorize our friends subjectively, but there is a sense of bond in each category of friends, and these categories of friends are based on intimacy and regularity is the basis.
The first and bottommost category of friends that many of us have is the contact friends, the friends with whom we are friendly whenever we meet them, but we do not meet them very often, apart from shared gatherings. These may include our school friends, friends who attend the same church that we attend, or friends who are on our local sports team. Contact friends are often mistaken with ‘acquaintances,’ however, they are not the same. Acquaintances are not even friends. Contact friends are more than acquaintances, but although we are friendly with them, we rarely consider meeting these friends intentionally.
The second category of friends is the common friends, which is the most typical category of friends, and we all have friends from this category. Usually, there is some shared commonality between us and these friends, based upon which we wish to get to know them more and spend time with them intentionally. As with contact friends, our bond with these common friends usually develops within a shared social circle or gathering. However, we soon learn that we soon learn that these friends have a similar hobby or interest that we have as well. So we begin meeting these friends frequently and intentionally, and spend more time with them than our contact friends.
The third category of friends is our confirmed friends, the friends we share a history with, who are neither casual friends but are also not our closest friends. These are the friends that we once very dear to us and we used to live close to them, but we no longer interact with them regularly. This category of friends falls in between our casual, contact and common friends, and our closer friends. At one point they used to be our closest friends, but for some reason we are no longer in frequent contact with them, and they are no longer a part of their daily lives as they once were. However, with confirmed friends, we can always pick up where we left off, and deepen our friendship bond.
The fourth category of friends that includes our closer friends is the community friends. These are the friends that we share a common boundary with but we choose to spend time with these friends on a regular basis beyond this boundary within our community. These are the friends we may not live close to but we are still so close to them that we make plans with them for the weekend, or invite them to concerts or parties on short notice. For instance, our work friends would fall into the category of contact or common friends, but if our bond deepens and we start meeting them outside of work, they would jump to the category of community friends. While our friendship with these friends extends past a common boundary but it depends on a common bonding subject.
The final category of friends is the commitment friends, the friends we are committed to beyond any common bonding subject. They are our closest and best friends. They are our most intimate friends, and we regularly share our lives with them and vice versa. This topmost category of friends is usually reserved for those friends with whom we can share our deepest feelings with, and they are involved in our lives in meaningful ways and vice versa. In most cases, we bond with our committed friends as contact friends or common friends, but over time our commitment deepens until they become our most loyal friends. It would not matter if we share a boundary with them and it does not matter if we have a commonality, we intend to maintain our friendship with them regardless.
The above information shows that we all need friends in each of these categories, and many of us already have such friends. Some of us tend to find it easier to make friends in some of these categories than others. Some of us enjoy socializing and have many contact friends, but we are not able build a consistent and intimate bond in order to make commitment friends. Others of us have a selective number of commitment friends with whom we spend our time, but we are not fond of socializing and making more contact and/or common friends. It is evident that each category of friends depends on a certain level of intimacy and frequency, and as this intimacy deepens and the regularity of meeting increases, friends from the lower categories can move up to the higher ones, becoming are closer friends.