Fun Friends, Intimates, Mutual-Interests Friends:

via Rob Henderson, Twitter:

Source:

https://sociological-eye.blogspot.com/2022/02/five-kinds-of-friends.html

Backstage intimates. :

Network researchers have defined a network tie or friend as “someone you discuss important matters with.” These are supposed to be crucial personal decisions-- whether to risk an operation, whether to quit your job, whether to get married or divorced. More broadly, backstage implies privacy and secrecy; things are said that you don’t want to get out, discussing people you don’t like; girls discussing boys they have a crush on. Lovers and spouses ideally share such intimacy, bedroom talk being less importantly about sex (which can be wordless or monosyllabic) but about events of the day when you had to keep your feelings to yourself.

Fun friends:

"Among teenagers and young adults, the term is “hang out with” (i.e. enjoying yourselves doing nothing serious). What is most fun are adventures, pulling pranks, getting intoxicated, carousing; as we can see because these are the stories they like to tell each other when hanging out. Sociologist Tony King observed that soccer hooligans recycle tales of their fights as the staple conversation of their drinking bouts, in what he calls “narrative gratification.” These are stories told with exaggeration and laughter, fun recapitulating fun."

"Observing the leisure gatherings of adults, we generally find the successful, career-obsessed upper-middle class has little fun in this sense; their “friends” are of a different kind and their parties are mostly shop-talk. Working-class and lower-middle class people tend to be very fun-oriented when they are young, but age out of it more quickly, into passive TV watching and its surrogates."

Mutual-interests friends:

"These are persons who like to be with each other because they share a common interest: playing chess, or bridge, or poker; repairing old cars; comparing wines; cooking and talking about it."

Fun friends versus Mutual-interests friends:

"Fun friends are noisy, carousing, extroverts; mutual-interest friends are generally rather quiet and sedentary. Their interests rarely reach to a peak of shared laughter or the shriek of excited children. Sociologically, we lack surveys of what proportion are in the fun friends sector and what portion of the population are in the shared interests zone."

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Allies: 

talking about money; asking for loans; asking for letters of reference, endorsements, asking to contact further network friends for jobs or investments.

Backstage intimates: 

Speaking in privacy; taking care not to be overheard. Don’t tell anybody about this.

Fun friends: 

 Shared laughter, especially spontaneous and contagious. Facial and body indicators of genuine amusement, not forced smiles or saying “that’s funny” instead of laughing. Very strong body alignment, such as fans closely watching the same event and exploding in synch into cheers or curses.

Mutual-interests friends: 

talking at great length about a single topic. Being unable to tear oneself away from an activity, or from conversations about it.

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via Her Campus, Fun Friends:

"A fun friend is a person you spend a lot of time with, especially when it comes to going out. Fun friends are the ones you text when you want to make evening plans or you want a shopping buddy. Even though you spend a lot of time with them, ‘fun friends’ aren’t the friends you call when you’re in a bind. While you always get along and have similar interests, you may not click on a deeper level."