I’ve decided to write a book. Can you believe that? I’d like to run a social experiment for the rest of this year and then turn my experience into a book.

In fact, the title of this post will likely be the title of my book.

We now live in a digital age that translates into a society where everyone is linked by 1-degree of separation. I’d like to find out if in fact our online friends would translate into the kind of friends you’d invite to your wedding or funeral.

For the next 6 months I am going to try and befriend as many people as possible, then cultivate those relationships into genuine friendships. At the end of that time I will go and visit my new friends for a couple of days each.

I assembled a list of things that friends do for each other and will try to accomplish as many of those as possible with my new friends. All the while I will share my experiences and determine what type of friend each person is and whether or not I would classify them as a “real” friend. Such as:

  • borrow car, house, boat or plane
  • drive/travel great distances for the sake of it
  • argue and make up
  • go to weddings/funerals
  • talk about anything including uncomfortable subjects
  • drive to or from hospitals, jails or anything in between

So where do I start this project?

Facebook sounds like the most logical place to me being it revolves around friends and friendship. So I created a Facebook fan page for Will you be my friend? If you think we’d possibly be good friends, let’s start by becoming Facebook friends. From there we can continue the conversation via my Twitter page, this blog, over email or the phone.

At the end of 6 months I will coordinate visiting the top 20-25 friends wherever they may live. If you know a sponsor, I’m accepting :)

I am not sure what to expect or exactly how this entire project is going to go, but I am sure interested in this new phenomenon and whether or not great, lasting friendships can be built online just as well as offline. I have sure met some really cool people via the Internet and when I met them in person there was a stronger connection than “just” the first time meeting someone.

What do you think about online friendship? Have you meet some online friends that turned out to be just as normal as your high school/college friend? Do you think the Internet makes friendship easier? Do you feel Internet friends lack things compared to your other friendships? Will you be my friend?