You may have found many friends through Internet networking, but how many of them are real friends?

　　A NEW study from the University of Essex in Britain has shown that the more friends you have at school, the more money you'll earn later。

　　The researchers noted that if you want to get ahead in life, social skills and networking are easily as powerful as talent

　　and hard work。

　　Maybe that's why we now find ourselves in the age of *Friendaholism. Call me uncool, but I think of a friend as an actual person with whom I have an actual history and whom I enjoy actually seeing. It seems, however, that this is no longer the definition

　　of "friend"。

　　A friend is someone on your Facebook page or in your Twitter circle. A friend is someone you might know personally but who could just as easily be the friend of a friend of some other Facebook friend you don't actually know. The idea of friendship, at least among the growing population of Internet social networkers, is to attain

　　as many of these not-really-friends as possible. Quantity *trumps quality。

　　Recently, I heard a woman complaining that Facebook's 5,000-friend limit was too low for her vast reserve of social contacts. At the time, this struck me as advanced-stage friendaholism. But in light of the University of Essex study, I'm wondering if her salary is two percent higher for every extra friend she has on Facebook? If so, why is she driving a used car?

　　I can't *presume to know the answer. But it's worth noting how many people these days regard "friends" as a form of currency。

　　That's not necessarily a bad thing. Social ties *grease the wheels of life. Without friends, we'd have fewer memories, not to mention less to remember。

　　Granted, even on Facebook, the currency of friends comes in different *denominations. If real-life friends feel like $100 (683 yuan) bills, those *random strangers amount to little more than loose change. But the fact remains that here, the dollar is losing its value. These "friendships" require a lot of maintenance. You have to keep instant-messaging and texting lest you become a bad "friend". As a result, for friendaholics, socializing is less about sharing life experiences than sustaining a never-ending *volley with multiple partners in a giant electronic tennis game。

　　In a poll conducted in 2004, where Americans were asked how many "close *confidants" they had, the most common answer was zero. As depressing as that is, it's hardly surprising. In the mind of the friendaholic, having one friend you can count on apparently just isn't as fun as having thousands of friends to count up. Considering how labor-intensive the new friendship frontier is, maybe people with wider social circles do deserve to earn higher salaries。

　　Too bad one thing money can't buy is a real friend。

　　英语词汇解析

　　commencement

　　毕业典礼

　　confidant

　　知己、密友

　　denomination

　　货币单位

　　friendaholism

　　滥交朋友

　　grease

　　润滑

　　meddle

　　干涉

　　presume

　　冒昧地做某事

　　random

　　随意的

　　snub

　　怠慢

　　terminate

　　终止trump

　　胜过

　　volley

　　截击

　　BONUS

　　count on

　　指望、依靠

　　I know I can count on you to help me with this. After all, we've been best friends since high school。

　　我知道能指望你帮我这个忙。我们毕竟从高中起就是好朋友。

　　toady (up) to

　　奉承、谄媚

　　Although he needs money badly, he says that toadying to his rich brother is the very last thing he would do。

　　他说，虽然急需钱，他也决不会去巴结他那有钱的兄弟。