What is friendship?

According to deviantArt’s definition, anyone who watches, or being on someone’s watch list, is considered a “friend”. Is this statement accurate? We will discuss this topic in the essay.

Many of us have experienced what we might call a "one-way friend". That is we wanted to be someone's friend, but they just seem to ignore us. I know some of us try to become popular by sticking to a popular artist, but real, genuine friendship is often overlooked.

Let me give you an example: Some popular artists prefer to use their watchers as their personal army to defend themselves. While their watchers are getting banned here and there, the artists themselves escape unscathed from all the drama.
Some of you know or have experienced this, whether you are part of the mob or a victim. As I have mentioned before in my previous essays, people tend to lead or join a group of attackers because it’s part of human nature. We are susceptible of this kind of exploitation. Sometimes, however, the person starting the fight doesn’t know about it or thinks it’s OK to start a fight. In this case, kindly remind them that their watchers will get caught in the drama. If they don’t listen to you, then leave it be. Do not condemn them, and don’t join the fight either.

Is there respect among fellow artists? Respect is the foundation of friendship. To build respect, one must possess qualities to be respected, that is, practice good relationship with people. It’s OK if you pay respect to someone and don’t get respect back, it simply means the other person doesn’t deserve it, therefore, don’t blame yourself for being a “bad person”, as it’s not your fault.

Friendship is also about trust. If we can’t trust one another, we can never be friends. Now, the question is, how do you trust someone? You can’t trust someone too easily, and you can’t say you don’t trust anyone either. To make things simple, you have to earn each other’s trust. You have to be respectful to your friends, and help them in times of need. A good test for friendship is keeping secrets. If a friend can’t keep secrets, he/she is not a real friend. Try to make your friend keep a secret as a test, and see if they actually go out and yell it at everyone.

deviantArt is a community. We absolutely need support from each other. We need to give each other support to help us excel. The sad truth is, people always pay too much attention to popularity, and ignore those who are in need. Surely some of the popular artists are thankful for your help, but to an “unpopular” artist, your help will be greatly appreciated. Try to get people engaged in community activities. For examples, contests are good. However, please keep the competition at a reasonable level. Remember that contests are for fun, not to get people riled up.

How to be a true friend? Even we are physically separated from each other, we can still practice good friendship online a serve as a good example for others to follow.

Open for discussions.
_{Please use "Reject" button if you disagree. Thank you.}