The limit of my knowledge about him is that he is a medical student in Germany and about 30 years old. He knows that I live in New Jersey and am a high school student. That is the extent of the personal information we know about each other, yet we are friends. If such a friendship exists, then there is clearly proof that a friendship requires contact, but does not necessarily require personal knowledge to be shared in depth. Contact is required to establish a friendship, but cannot make one directly.
Contact forms an acquaintance, and an acquaintance forms a friendship.
Without some common ground or common interest an acquaintance will never evolve into a friend. A friendship is based on the communication of feelings and ideas, and no communication can exist on any level without a common interest. In the above example, the common interest is Robert Jordan s series of novels. Many friendships start off with common ground as simple as sharing classes in school or having a common friend. As these friendships grow deeper, more and more similarities are found to make the friendship grow even deeper.