Loneliness has recently been described as a silent epidemic.
Surveys report that people now have fewer close friends then ever before.
Experts assert that Facebook friends aren’t real friends and that the brave new
world of social networking is making people more isolated and alienated than
ever. A recent cover story in Oprah Magazine laments the demise of the simple
phone call and warns that texting is an inadequate and potentially seditious substitute.
Are people hiding from intimacy behind smart phones, social media, gaming and
electronics? Or could our ability to interact via our devices in point of fact be
an asset that is bringing us ever closer and creating genuine opportunities for
socializing, emotional support and conversation? I find it interesting that many
of these surveys, articles, and experts rarely provide a clear definition of
the terms they study. What if we aren’t actually lonelier than before? What if
what’s really called for is reconsideration of an outmoded conceptualization of
friendship and loneliness?
Never before have we been so connected with such a diversity
of choices and options for social interaction immediately at our fingertips. Does
the data really justify experts’ warnings that these new alternatives are
inferior to older established types of social interaction? Wasn’t the highly respectable
telephone call once considered a new-fangled assault on conventional society? Don’t
members of the old guard frequently voice dire predictions that fresh
innovations are deficient and hazardous compared to their traditional time-honored counterparts? When you consider the rapid rate of change in our
contemporary society, it’s reasonable to assume that how we look at friendship
and loneliness needs to evolve at a comparable pace. What we expect from marriage has undergone a radical
transformation in the past 50 years.
Therefore, it seems plausible to presume that our conceptualization of
friendship should be following a similar trajectory.
On a slightly different note, could it be possible that we might
now have fewer closer friends because we are actually better off with fewer
close friends? We are busier than ever before which means most of us have less
time and energy to invest in our friendships than we did in the past. Many
people in committed relationships consider their spouse or partner to be their
best friend. Along with this partner, more friends at lower intensity may be
the most parsimonious solution. In my opinion, an evolving mosaic of diverse
friends accessible by telephone, online, and in-person seems the most elegant
and practical antidote to “the loneliness epidemic”.
What about when a close friendship goes sour? A chum who initially appears to be the answer
to all your prayers can degenerate into a frenemy. Toxic and exploitative
friendships are a dirty little secret no one usually admits to in polite
company. Many people unquestioningly tolerate appallingly manipulative behavior
in the name of close friendship. After all, who doesn’t aspire to having a BFF?
But, what if you find your bestie requires too much time, effort, accommodation,
frustration and discontent on your part with precious little in return? Should
this one-sided level of compromise be required to keep a close friendship intact?
Might it not be better to have several satisfying friendships of moderate emotional
intensity with a lower overall risk of toxicity from any one person? Of course,
all successful relationships will require some degree of work and negotiation
but no friendship should be consistently inequitable, controlling or
draining. Your pals should lift you up,
energize you and make you happy. You shouldn’t feel a sense of dread when the
caller ID lights up with the phone number of someone who you call your best
friend.
Or are we lonely because we give up too soon or we don’t
value relationships as we should? Maybe we have all grown so selfish and
self-absorbed that we can’t appreciate a good relationship when we have one staring
us right in the face. What if our expectations have become excessively narcissistic,
misguided and unrealistic? Perhaps the idealized images projected by TV, books
and movies, seasoned with a sizeable dose of nostalgia, in combination with our
fast paced, immediate-gratification culture have come together in a way that
makes emotionally intimate friendship impossible or unsustainable. Maybe
superficiality is the best anyone can really do and we should simply embrace it
and be content with our lot.
Besides, how do you really know if someone is your friend anyway?
Conversely, how do you know when someone who you think is your friend really
isn’t? Frankly, how do you determine who is an asset in your relationship life
and who is actually a liability? Who do you consider to be your friend? Is your
next-door neighbor your friend or merely an acquaintance? What about your
spouse, sibling or child? Is the barista you chat with every day when you pick
up your morning coffee your friend? What about your coworkers or the other
riders in your carpool or the person who works out next to you at the gym 3
times a week? Is the childhood buddy you talk to once every ten years at your
high school reunion your friend? Can someone you’ve never met face to face
really be your friend? Are all of your Facebook friends real friends? What
about the people you play online games with every day? If virtual friends are
real friends what does it mean when they can’t give you a hug, bring you soup
when you’re sick or help you move that new couch into your apartment? We call
dogs, “mans best friend.” Can a dog really be your best friend? The answers are
not always easy or straightforward.
While we are on the subject, what exactly is a best friend,
anyway? How do you decide when an acquaintance has become a friend? When is
someone who was once your friend officially a friend no longer? All of these
questions can get your head spinning and make you want to hide
under the covers in sheer frustration. To
find the answers, it’s important to take some time to seriously consider your
personal understanding of what friendship and loneliness mean in your own life.
Your definition of friendship will be as unique as your fingerprint. It will
help you determine who really is a friend to you and what significance
this has for your sense of social support, interconnection and loneliness.
I am currently exploring the answers to these questions using a survey I’ve developed. In December, I will giving a TED talk on the topic of friendship. I would appreciate your input on my talk by clicking on the link below and completing my survey.
Check back for future blogs where I
will be exploring the topic of friendship further and sharing the results of my
survey.
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