Stealing A Friend’s Friend

Even as adults, we deal with the same issues we did when we were in grade school, i.e., “She stole my friend!” Friend poaching, as the Seattle Times calls it, has always been a problem, largely because we don’t have the same rules in friendships that we have in relationships. There aren’t accepted rules like “Thou shalt not date a friend’s ex without permission” in the world of friends. Having a friend stolen from you really sucks, and I should know because it happened to me in middle school. However, the practice works out really well for the poacher, who knows this new person must be at least semi-cool since their friends approve of her. Facebook has made friend poaching really easy. Go to a party, meet someone knew, friend them the next day. Some people would call this “networking,” and it is, until you stop hanging out with the person who introduced you. But maybe friend poaching is just a way of alerting you that you shouldn’t be friends with your friend anymore. Thoughts? [Seattle Times]