What Are Fake Friends?

Throughout your lifetime you will have the opportunity to develop and maintain many types of friendships. Friends can fall into several categories, from casual acquaintances to work buddies to life-long friends. Making new friends seems to be easier than ever in a world fueled by social media and modern technology. It's easy to have 600 friends on Facebook or to have 200 or more contacts programmed into your cell phone. How do you separate the real friends from the fake friends? First, you need to define what fake friends are.

Defining a fake friend

Urban dictionary offers several definitions for fake friends. These definitions include someone who uses you or someone who acts like a friend but then says nasty and mean things about you behind your back. A fake friend seems on the surface to be a nice, caring person, but in reality he or she only cares about one person-himself or herself.

Recognizing fake friends

Sometimes it's not easy to recognize a fake friend. Many people simply want to believe the best in everyone, especially their friends. This often results in being taken advantage of or hurt by a so-called friend. There are a few warning signs that a person in your life may be a fake friend. A fake friend will often do the following on a repeated basis:

• A fake friend has no problem asking for favors without ever returning favors to you. Fake friends have a sense of entitlement and no conscience about using another person to get what they want, when they want it.
• Real friends embrace and celebrate your special moments with joy. Fake friends always make the moments about themselves. It won't matter if it's your graduation day, promotion dinner celebration or wedding day; a fake friend will find a way to make it all about himself or herself.
• When you need him or her the most, your fake friend will have something else that is a priority. However, the fake friend will always expect you to drop everything when he or she has a crisis.
• Fake friends only want to be with you when they don't have anything better to do or if it benefits them in some way. A fake friend will jump at the chance to use your extra ticket for the ball game but won't answer his phone when you need help painting the living room.
• A real friend may not agree with your parenting decisions, choice in a new job or your newest sweetheart, but real friends are loyal and supportive regarding choices and decisions. A fake friend will support your decision to your face but then say negative things behind your back.

Learning to discern the difference between fake and real friends can potentially save you from frustration, anger and even heartache. One important distinction to remember when sorting out the fake friends from the real friends: Fake friends judge you but real friends accept you for who you are at all times.