Is Facebook Destroying Friendship? - letsdiskuss
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vishal tiwari

Blogger | Posted on | News-Current-Topics


Is Facebook Destroying Friendship?


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Quite an ironical question. Isn’t Facebook, and all of the social media platforms for that matter meant to bring you closer to people? Aren’t you supposed to be better in socializing than ever before with the help of all the messenger apps and social networks? Is not your growing friend list on Facebook, your mountain of photographs there, and exponentially increasing likes and comments on them the criteria according to which you can say you are winning at friendship and in life?

Letsdiskuss (Courtesy: healthline.com)

Also Read: Why friendship is different than any other relationship we have?

I know thinking about these questions with a free floating mind does not only gives you a sense of the destroyed friendships, but also a sense of the destroyed self-esteem. I know you have guessed the irony hidden behind all the questions I put above and I know that you know that all the questions I asked are rhetorical, the answer of which is lingering above every Facebook user’s head.
facebook-destroying-friendship-letsdiskuss (Courtesy: thevervelife.com)
According to research conducted by Robin Dunbar of University College, London in 1993, there are certain cognitive limits according to which any human creates his/her social network. Dunbar came up with the number 150, known as “Dunbar’s number”. It is the number of relationships (take note relationships, not friendships) a person can have in his life.
According to the research, “That limit, it seems, is about 150 people including your favorite barista, the gas station attendant, your boss, your employees, people you attend church and social functions with, classmates, and so on. But that’s just the limit of people you can maintain stable relationships with, much less friendship.” (Source: Psychologytoday.com)
facebook-destroying-friendship-letsdiskuss (courtesy: patrickmadrid.com)
By this research, it is clear that the ever-increasing number of friends piling up on your Facebook is not what you call “real friends”. You may share about your new job, your lavish dinner, your expensive vacation, and your new big house with your Facebook friends, but the heartbreaks, your depression, your family problems, and you real happiness, these you can never share with your 400 virtual friends. For sharing these, you need those four friends who can show up at your door with a big tub of ice cream when you are upset. Or those who would wake up at 6 am to see you off at the airport when you are leaving for a vacation.
Facebook is destroying the true friendships because it is blurring the lines between the real and the virtual increasingly. It’s the misunderstanding created among masses that is posing a serious threat to our friendships. If you have thousands of friends on Facebook and still the four walls of your washroom have heard the most of your cries, trust me you are not winning at life.


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