Friendship requires will.
It's nice to have all the technology in the world at your disposal, and be able to contact anyone else in the world, instantanously . But then, you have to want to do it.
I have friends who could well call me up and say "hello". But for some, it never seems to happen. Maybe they aren't my friends, after all. Some of them will even scold me for not contacting them more often, "you've become remote, man" they'll say. Yeah, right. I thought friendship was a two-way street.
What I'm saying is that friendship, must be maintained, cultivated, fed, tended to, etc. Otherwise, it will wither and die. If I haven't seen you, or heard from you in 10 years, and I haven't changed e-mail, address, telephone, and you live in the same city as I do, I don't believe I can honestly call you my friend.
Distance may be a factor, but here is where the technology thing comes in. Telephone charges may be relatively steep (thanks to national phone monopolies), and snail-mail may be too slow and unreliable. However, e-mail isn't (well, it may be relatively unreliable, but more reliable than mail carriers outside of the US). And that's just one of the oldest technologies available.
If you lost the e-mail address, then call up and ask. If you lost the phone number, then send me a letter. If you don't have the address, well, then get off your butt and move. If my friendship isn't worth all that trouble, then I agree we shouldn't be friends. Of course, the converse is also true.
