friends. they're there to support you no matter what, and will help you through good times and bad. they don't lie to you, they don't cheat with you, they don't use you for their own benefit. true friends are hard to find, which is why it infuriates me when people try to call themselves a friend. what am I talking about? kindness accounts. a friend is more than just a follower who says they care. clicking a ton of blue buttons around a webpage does not make you inherently a good person or ridiculously kind. because the meaning of a follow is "I enjoy your content, so I'm going to follow you because I want to see more." it's not about the number of followers, it's about who they are. if they respect you. how they act. and the majority - almost all - of kindness accounts don't actually view any of the projects of those who they follow. a lot of kindness accounts argue that a follow, no matter who it's from, can brighten up someone's day if they feel down. and I'm sure this is true some of the time - I'm not fully against kindness accounts in general. but picture this: you're a new scratcher, just making projects mostly for yourself, and you've always wanted other people to care about them. and one day, you get just that! someone followed you! but wait... they follow everyone. so it doesn't really mean anything, does it? do they even care? I once saw a "kindness" account say something like this: "don't thank me for the follow, I honestly don't care that I followed you." ... I'm not saying they're all like that, but like - you should be following someone because you care about them, their projects, or both, not because your own personal goal is to follow everyone. and besides: you don't need a secret account to be kind. you don't need to be ashamed of, or hide, your kindness. you can be kind as yourself. I don't really have a good way to end this, I just felt like it needed to be said :)
