What is a Friend?

It seems like everyone you talk to these days always mention the word friend in conversation. I've noticed that this is a word that is loosely used by a lot of people. Some have the idea if they are introduced to someone that they automatically become a friend. Maybe I'm wrong, but doesn't that just make them an acquaintance? It seems that people are so lonely and insecure that they confuse friend and acquaintances.
I would like to tell my definition of both:
A friend is someone that you personally know,you may have went to school with them,
you may have work with them and developed a close relationship,you talk with this
person on a regular basis, they are there if you need them and vice versa.
An acquaintance is nothing more than someone you have met briefly. You have never spent any time with them doing things together. You've never worked together and shared things. Should you need them for something, they usually have an excuse why they aren't available.
I work with people that I see everyday, we know each other by name, but we have never been together outside of work. Are these people friends? Maybe some people would say they are, but I feel they are nothing more than acquaintances or just co-workers.

It's sad that more people don't take the time to distinguish the difference. It could save them a lot of heartache if they would.

My advice to these people is wake up! Not everyone you meet or talk to is your friend. I'm a member of a social network, are these people my friends? Some actually are people that I know personally, others are people that I've met online and are more or less online pals that send you comments to brighten your day. Most live in other states, and it's kind of interesting to talk about the things that are going on where each one lives. I guess they are more or less pen pals, only instead of sending letters back and forth by mail (as my mother did for years before she lost her sight)now you correspond through email. I can remember my mom corresponding with men and women from all over the United States, but in all those years, she never said "oh I got a letter from my friend", she always said she got a letter from her pen pal so & so.
My mother lived by herself for thirty years after all of kids grew up and left home. I'm sure that she was lonely, but at least she knew who was her friends and who was her acquaintances.
I have a couple of Best Friends (the ones that know me as well as I know my self and love me just the way I am), I have a few friends (ones that I see and talk to occasionally, maybe even get together and do something) and then I have tons of acquaintances (people I see on a regular basis, but they know very little about me and I plan on keeping that way). You see most of these people that I'm acquainted with, I really don't have that much in common with them, so I don't see them as being a true friend.
Maybe I'm too judgmental, but it sure keep the wolves away, you know the ones, they always show up at your door when they have no one else to turn to and the suck the life out of you. The use you for everything that can get out of you then leave when you have no more to give.
It's sad to say that more and more each day, our world is being consumed by people that are self centered. It's all "about them" and what they want. They could care less about what other people need. I'm afraid the days of helping your fellow man are long gone. If you should happen to find someone that gives freely without expecting anything in return, then you have stumbled onto a rare breed and should be in awe of such a lost trait in humanity.