I don’t like the usage of “#nonewfriends.” It implies that one is not open to the idea of making any new friends, ever. Sure, you might have a wonder­ful set of old friends who have been there for you from child­hood. But this doesn’t mean you should block the idea of meeting new people and developing new relationships.

Here’s some background in­formation on the hashtag before I elaborate further.

For those who don’t know, a hashtag, according to Google def­initions, is “(on social media sites such as Twitter) a word or phrase proceeded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify mes­sages on a specific topic.”

These topics range from any­thing and everything from cats to friendships, and many “hashtags” stem from songs or shows. One such popular hashtag topic is “ no new friends,” which has been trending on Twitter since April 2013.

Popularized by a song called “No New Friends” by DJ Khaled featuring Drake, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross, this hashtag (from my understanding) is meant to make clear one’s appreciation or love for current and old friends, i.e. the people that have been present over the years for support and fun. The lyrics of the song make this clear, but I’m not going to quote any lyrics because they consist of words that can’t be printed here.

Now back to my point. I don’t like when people use “#nonew­friends” on social media sites.

I agree that it is important to be happy and appreciative of those who play major roles in our lives, and that it is important to recognize the value of the friend­ships we have; however, it is not necessary to block the idea of making any new friends for the rest of our lives.

In my mind, this is what “#nonewfriends” entails. It is a hashtag that holds some nega­tivity, and it is a hashtag that is unnecessary to make clear love and appreciation for true friends whenever you post a photo on Instagram or write something on Twitter. Love and appreciation for friends could be made just as clear without rejecting the idea of ever starting or maintaining any new relationships with people.

Just to further prove that the hashtag is unnecessary, here is a quick example of a caption that I commonly see under pictures of groups of friends on my social media feeds: “Omg love these girls! My ride or dies! #nonew­friends for real tho *heart emoti­cons*.” The caption would still convey the same sense of love for close friends without the usage of #nonewfriends. I understand that people who use the hashtag may only mean that they don’t want to add any people to their immedi­ate and closest friend group. But I still don’t even agree with that notion.

I love my friends and appreci­ate them; if I were never to make another new friend, I’d be fine with that because of the strong friendships I already have. But, I will remain open to meeting new people and forming new friend­ships. I don’t see any harm in that; I believe that being open to forming new relationships with people is an integral part of life.