Hoodwinked by facebook

The social networking site has wormed its way back into my life again. I initially joined facebook to stay in contact with my best bud Miss Smarty-pants as we were to be living in different cities. Ok and maybe because I'm a bit stingy when it comes to buying airtym and actually call someone when I miss them [why call when u can sms:)]. So facebook proved an easy solution for a cheapskate of my calibre as I could access it for free on campus everyday(since I spent way too time in the lab anyway). This was towards the end of last year already and before I knew it, most of ma fellow journos-in-training were also on facebook. So now we went from being nerdy to super-nerdy because every free chance we got between classes, we darted for the lab. Then I started getting friend requests from people I didn't even know. So I guess that was cool for a while until I started reading other people's profiles and when I read something I liked, I also sent friend invites. I also sent invites to some of the people in the industry whose work I liked and finally I was able to "talk" to them. I will admit that I was deeply disappointed at times coz honestly some people write the most beautiful pieces or make awesome music but have the personality of an ironing-board. Now that I work, I go onto facebook when I'm bored (which is a regular occurance). But then there were other people who outlived my expectations. Which brings me to why I am hoodwinked.. So does this mean that I can actually refer to them as my friends and not as facebook friends or contacts. Can you actually be really friends with someone after having "met" them on facebook? Well, the sceptic in me says no because eventually there is certain sense of false security in social networking. I imagine it to be like internet dating without the sex (if u will). Like when you do eventually meet your "friends", you are likely to be disappointed. But one thing I'm hoping for is to get a weird friendor two, u know, someone who moonlights as a drug-dealing priest or something like that. I read about them but have never really facebooked (if that is an actual word) with a weirdo, all ma friends are pretty normal or maybe I am their weird friend??