The Tipping Point was released by Malcolm Gladwell before the social networking boom, and the timing could not have been better. The power of social media proves many of the theories that he brings up. One of his points talks about the average number of friends that each person has, and I think the definition of friendship is being challenged by social media. In which other era of history could your mom be as many LinkedIn degrees away from you as that guy who sat next to you in your Freshman English class?

Years ago, a true friend might have been someone who was proximate enough to interact with often, shared common values and interests, and defended you without question. However, with the advent of technology, we are able to develop friendships with people outside our local vicinity and sometimes those relationships feature more common values and interests than the ones we have with people in our own hometown. Is our distant friend actually less important to us simply because of geography? Of course not. Many of my best friends are people I have met through volunteer organizations who I only get to visit with a couple of times a year because they live thousands of miles away. Yet, the connection I have with them is much deeper than the ones I have with many people I see regularly.

Friendships can also change dramatically over time. As individuals grow and develop throughout life, their interests and priorities can merge or diverge from each other, and I think that is a perfectly healthy phenomenon. So, in this age of being able to find virtually anyone online, who is truly your friend and who is not? Should you accept that Facebook add or MySpace invitation? That is up to you; it's difficult to know which relationships might blossom and which ones might fizzle. Perhaps the most important skill in this age of fast-paced changes is to be able to develop new friendships as we grow. Thankfully, we now have the technology to maintain more connections with more amazing people than ever before.