Mutual friends
20 Mar 2006I know I’m posting about this a fair bit lately. It’s important at the minute, I’ll stop when things settle down a bit. I’m really happy I haven’t allowed this to be/turn into an all-geek blog.
Anyway, aren’t meeting friend’s friends great? Especially when both parties have been mentioned to one another by the mutual friend, and you’re expecting to see someone you don’t-know-but-know-by-proxy at a certain place (here, a lecture/tut). It’s good because it alleviates the usual screening process people unconsciously (or consciously, I guess) do when in new groups of people, and there’s a pre-existing (implicit) degree of trust, to some extent. First steps taken care of.
Drawbacks? Well, I suppose there could be when you cease to be friends contained in one context and start to be friends outside of that initial context socially, etc., and there’s overlap with the original mutual friend… but even that depends on the nature of the relationship(s) so much that it doesn’t make sense to assert there’s anything universally bad with such relationships.
Interesting stuff to think about. Next time you’re meeting a friend’s friend in a context external to the original friend, see if you run all the usual “filters” on them as you would on anyone else unknown in the room. It’s different to sharing an interest, in that the common friend isn’t just a conversation catalyst (as an object, not as someone physically there starting the conversation for you) but rather a vehicle for trust. Thoughts?