Acquaintance and  Friend

From time to time these days I got some invitations to be added as a"friend". I was a bit puzzled at how to response.

According to my observation, some of the invitations are purely for the numbers of the "friends". Normally these are the newcomers of Hexun's community and perhaps they just sent messages to a group to see whoever would like to add and they don't care whether you have some common interest or not. The result is that they will get their names on the top of the list of the "favorable people". There are some one who are more selective and they invited me after they either have read my blog or made some comments on them. Usually if it is the latter case I will send the feed back to "agree" or "accept" right away as I know that he or she has something in common with me. If it is the other kind of situation I feel some hesitation in accepting the invitation. I would rather spend some time reading his or her blog, viewing the RSS, Bookmarks or the Pictures they put on their personal portals to get better understanding what kind of persons they are.

I feel that the "friends" here somehow are just acquaintance by my definition at least for the beginning stage. Later on with more and more contacts through the views sharing and exchanges as time goes by, some of them will turn into friends and some will stay in the "original line". Recently I kept on asking myself: Am I too old to play the "game", too conservative to go along with the new "community" and too selective to make friends? Maybe I am for now, but it is a bit beyond my control.

I hate to refuse people and I don't want to be rude but I really can not betray myself inside. I would like to make apology before hand if later on someone get refusal or no answer from me. Your understanding will be highly appreciated in advance!