{"id":15545,"date":"2012-11-23T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T17:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=15545"},"modified":"2013-11-17T03:21:07","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T10:21:07","slug":"how-social-networking-changes-friendships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/how-social-networking-changes-friendship-1123127","title":{"rendered":"How Social Networking Changes Friendships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CoupleIn an increasingly connected world, most people have an account on at least one social networking platform, and many people use social networking as their primary means of communication with friends and family. Most of us are aware that social networking poses some dicey questions in romantic relationships<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhether to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153friend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d exes, whether to share private conversations with partners, what constitutes flirting, how much information about a relationship is acceptable to share online, and so on\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut social networking is primarily an avenue for connecting with nonromantic friends.<\/p>\n

Is social networking changing friendship<\/a> as we know it? Research hints that the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

Reduced Investment<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Facebook provides bountiful opportunities for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153friending\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201da term we owe to social networking\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand many people have hundreds or even thousands of online friends. Historically, people have had 150 to 200 people in their circle of acquaintances, on average, and only a few close friends. But Facebook, for example, allows people to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153friend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d others without making much investment. This could change the way people approach friendship. Where friendship previously required time, effort, and a lot of conversation, it now seemingly requires only a click of a button. This has the potential to broaden the number of people a person may consider his or her friends, while significantly reducing the number who fit the more traditional traits associated with close friendship.<\/p>\n

Changed Boundaries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Although some social networking sites offer options that allow people to limit the viewers on certain posts, people tend to post things to everyone on their friends list. This serves to alter the boundaries of traditional acquaintance relationships. Your boss might read about your difficult pregnancy<\/a>, and an old college professor might hear about your difficulties in your marriage. Conversely, when people use only social networks to communicate with their close friends, they limit the intimacy and detail of their conversations because\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddespite the compromised boundaries brought about by social networking\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthere are still some things that most people won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t post online, even if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d share these things with close friends.<\/p>\n

Social networks also make it much easier to share controversial opinions with friends and acquaintances. Many of us have friends with whom we would never discuss politics or religion<\/a>. But the endless political jockeying on Facebook and Twitter makes it much more likely that people will engage with their political foes. Depending on how these conversations are handled, they can increase conflict or even destroy friendships, or they can promote understanding and mutual respect.<\/p>\n

Reaching Out<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Starting a new friendship can be challenging, particularly for adults who are no longer in school or who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a large pool of co-workers. For shy people and those seeking new friends, social networking provides an easy way to make the first overture of friendship. By simply clicking the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153add friend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d button, people can convey that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re interested in getting to know someone, reducing a traditional barrier to friendship.<\/p>\n

Changing Face Time<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In-person communication with friends has always been an important part of friendship. Social networking might reduce the frequency of face-to-face contact. One study found that 10% of social networking friends ranked as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153close\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had never actually met in person. Social networking also changes how people spend face time with friends; they may spend time together perusing others\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 social network profiles or discussing what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen online rather than catching up on one another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives.<\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Novotney, A. (n.d.). R U friends 4 real? American Psychological Association<\/em>. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.apa.org\/monitor\/2012\/02\/friends.aspx<\/li>\n
  2. Is social networking changing the face of friendship? (2007, September 14). ScienceDaily<\/em>. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2007\/09\/070912161147.htm<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Social networking has made it easier to expand our pools of so-called “friends” … but at what cost?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2555,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[31,387,475,25,41],"class_list":["post-15545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-psychotherapy-practice","tag-communication-problems","tag-pop-culture","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-marriage-counseling-relationships"],"acf":{"author_show":false,"author_name":"","author_role":"","author_avatar":null,"author_profile_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2555"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}