Lab 6: What does friendship mean to you?

From Grace:

The average number of friends Americans have has gone down, because the number of people we know has gone up. Whether it's on facebook, myspace, or the contacts in your cell phone, many people have hundreds of "friends" documented through technology. This ease of communication has lead to a simplified way of life. Instead of visiting someone to talk to them, a phone call would stand in it's place. Instead of the phone call even a message on facebook or an email could be quicker, less intrusive, and simpler. This convenient communication has allowed us to keep in touch with hundreds of people from all over the world instantly.

However, this has also lead to us being more selective with who our close friends are. In 1985, the average American had three close friends, but today Americans say they have only two. In reality, we haven't lost a friend, just one of the relationships has been simplified down. The two friends left are the friends that are closest to us, the ones that even in the fast-paced busy lives many Americans live, we still make time to meet in person often.

Social capital is definitely changing, and almost morphing into something completely different. Technology has made us redefine "friends". We are able to know and keep in touch with a lot more people than we have been able to in the past at our convenience. So when someone is asked how many friends they have, the answer wouldn't be the 500 people they are friends with on facebook.The answer would be the two friends that are close enough to them that they step outside of the virtual convenience, and become more like family.

At first, when hearing the statistics, i assumed that this was definitely a negative effect of how society is changing. But the more i thought about it, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. The convenience of virtual communications, all though less personal than a face to face visit, has given us the opportunity to experience much more. Location doesn't have as strong of an influence of friendships as it would have in the past. We are able to easily keep in touch with people all over the world instantly. We are able to gain so much through global communications, and the fact that it is easily available to anyone with internet, is really remarkable.

However, I can see how it would be easy to become almost addicted to the convenience of communication today, and how people would begin to neglect smaller communities and lose social capitol. But it isn't a problem that we can't fix. If the awareness is raised for the need to have stronger small communities, whether it's through churches, clubs, or just neighborhood friendships,it is possible that we could find a balance. Perfection of the social capitol isn't something that you could easily define or make happen, but it's definitely something worth constantly striving for.