The concept of friendship has always been there for a long time and ever since man started reasoning, he has made friends and enemies regularly. The relation between two persons without any kind of relationship between them could be described roughly as friendship and we have seen scores and scores of people who take their friendships very seriously and an equal number of people who don’t take it seriously. There are different types of friendships and each differs from the other in its own way. While friendship commonly denotes a relationship which is considered very personal and close, there are also non-personal friendships which are prevalent in many societies. Non-personal friendships are very common today and this comes as no surprise in today’s society. A non-personal friend is someone who is with you and there for you but doesn’t get involved in your personal issues. In short, you don’t have to discuss your personal issues with him and he doesn’t need to discuss his personal life with you. While this concept may sound strange to a lot of people, it is common right now and you can see a lot of people go this way.
Conventional friendship means people sharing everything with each other, including their private issues. They are supposed to be very close to each other, they are there for each other always, and it is considered a very personal way of relating to a person. A conventional friend is one who will be always there for you, discuss everything with you, and help you out in your issues including your private ones, and so on. But a non-personal friend is someone who will not discuss his private issues and will not ask you about your private issues. These kinds of friendships are favored by people who like to keep a safe distance from others, including their friends. These kinds of people are very inward and they don’t easily open up to others. So, they naturally expect their friends to respect their privacy and not to trouble them with the discussion of private issues from both sides. Actually, when you come to think of it, we all might have had a non-personal friend in our lives. But it’s just that we didn’t give him the name of non-personal friend. So, the issue is not new, but an old one. At the same time, a non-personal friend may help you out with some issues, just like your close friends. The difference largely lies in the perception of people and how you perceive another person as your non personal friend or close and personal friend. Some researchers say the issue of non-personal friendship should not cause any concern to anyone as far as the persons involved don’t feel aloof and lonely. So, non-personal friendship or personal friendship, the difference lies in your treatment. You can have non-personal friends and still be happy and you can have lots of close friends and still feel sad, miserable, and lonely. It all depends on the way you conceive things and perceive the characters of different people. While the tag of non-personal friend may sound very foreign in the superficial layer, if you go deep and find out the inner meaning, it’s something you can actually make use of and benefit from.