When we talk about friends, we don’t always talk about the level of friendship we have, but there are some differences between casual and close friends.
There are four levels of friendship, acquaintances, casual friends, close friends, and intimate friends. I have an entire article about close vs. intimate friends if you want more details on that.
But the fact that we don’t define what we consider a friend makes discussions about how many friends we need a bit tricky since some people will count all the acquaintances as well, and you might feel like you are not socializing enough when compared to others.
This is not the only benefit of knowing what type of friend you have. Rather the biggest benefit is that it will help you know what to expect from each of them according to what type of friend they are for you.
This can help you understand why some of them care about your personal life, and others don’t, but you still have a good time with them.
What is a casual friendship?
A casual friendship is when meeting someone with a common interest, you feel like you are on the same page and like spending time with them, but it doesn’t go deeper than that, and you don’t talk too much about your personal life with them.
A casual friend is a friend you like hanging out with once in a while to check up with what’s new in your and their’s life but not too often.
It is not like an acquaintance since with most of our acquaintances, we meet only accidentally or by circumstances, while with casual friends, we make an effort to hang out with them once in a while, every couple of months or so.
You can say that casual friendship is a surface-level friendship.
What is a close friendship?
A close friendship is the type of friendship that we have with most people we care about.
A close friend is a friend you want to see quite often, and you would not hesitate to call them if you need something. As we discussed in the article about intimate vs. close friends, you would call a close friend if you need help with something but you would not call them for emotional support as you would call your family or your intimate friends(best friends).
But when it comes to casual friends, you will most likely think that you don’t want to bother them to help you, only if it is something very specific and you know they are good at.
Differences between close and casual friends
1. How often do you hang out with them
The biggest difference between all the friendship levels is how often you want to hang out with them. Of course, the circumstances can impact this, but usually, you will hang out more often with a close friend than a casual one.
Excluding work colleagues that you might consider casual friends because, in this case, you hang out with them quite often, but you might not consider them close friends.
2. Talking much more personal
When it comes to close friends, you will feel like they care about your life, and you can open up with them easier than with casual friends and harder than with intimate friends.
So talking about what is really important for you, like your goals or your relationship with other people, and so doesn’t often happen with casual friends.
3. Who do you call when you need help
As I said before, when you need help with moving the furniture, repairing something, or things along this line, you will first call your family and best friends(intimate friends), then you will call your close friends if those are not available.
Most of the time, casual friends will not come to your mind when you need help unless they are the last resource you have, and even then, you might want to wait until some of your closest friends are available.
4. You would invite them to a party you organize
When you organize a party, be it a birthday, Halloween, Christmas party, or another type of party, you would not hesitate to invite your close friends, but we don’t usually invite casual friends to our parties.
So this is a good indication of what type of friends you are, you can see who invites you to their party and who you would invite to your parties.
Should you try to make close friends from casual friends?
Some friends are good as they are, it would be overwhelming to have only close or intimate friends. We need casual friends since we are not as emotionally attached to them, hanging out with them can be less energy-consuming and more rational.
However, if you feel like your friendship can become closer, and you would want that, by all means, try to hang out with them more often. Things should happen naturally if that is the case.
Also, when you feel like you don’t have close friends or you don’t have enough, you can find really good friends from your casual friends if you work a bit more and more intentionally on that friendship.
But you should not feel like you have to do that because that friendship is not going anywhere, not all friendships should go somewhere, some of them are good as they are.
Read Also: Five Tips For Couples Working Together
Conclusion
There are big differences between casual and close friendships, even if we don’t usually think about them that way. Knowing if a friend is a close friend or a casual one will help you have realistic expectations and also will help you not feel guilty because you don’t put enough effort into that friendship.
So, there is something you can benefit from clearly defining what type of friends is each of your friends.
