viernes, 12 de junio de 2009
Friend Turnover
Seven years from now, a new study reports, your friend group will probably look entirely different, even though it'll still be the same size. Utrecht University sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst surveyed 604 people about their friends and again seven years later, and found that only 48 percent of people's original friends were still part of their network after that time period. How will social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter affect the rate of friend turnover in the next seven years?
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After going 4000 miles out of my way to meet online acquaintances, I realize that all the gongho-ness of meeting online friends was like a high school reunion: not lasting.
ResponderEliminarBeing a nomad (bedouin, tramp) makes it difficult for people to befriend people on the move constantly. Circles of friends always change. Depending when and if you start a family, at 29 they revolved around children. At 39 they revolved around homes and neighborhoods. At 49 with freedom from direct family ties, they don't exist when you live like a sole gypsy.
Of course many people have office jobs and their friends revolve around that. When folks retire, friend membership also just disentegrates. You might be able to replace this with facebook type relationships but i still bet on physical proximity and not online clicks.
Given that I don't think I'll be in the same city, nor province, in 7 years time. I'd say that the make up of my friends will change 100%.
ResponderEliminarMy guess this has a lot to do with other life changes and the way in which the people answered the question. I recently moved from NYC to DC. I had friends in both places, and haven't really made any *new* friends in that time. But if you were to ask me a year ago (while still in NY) who my three closest friends were, I would have likely named 3 people in NY who I saw quite often. Ask me now, and I will likely say the 3 people in DC I see most often. None of my relationships have changed; I am still just as close with the friends in NY as I was previously, and no closer with the friends in DC than I was previously. Yet, because of circumstance, I would probably answer the question differently. So, my guess is this phenomenon has less to do with people actually making drastic shifts in their social groups, and more likely is the result of outside circumstances. One way I think you could control for this would be how you ask the question.
ResponderEliminarSaying, "Tell me who all your friends are," would likely result in a list of people who are at the forefront of a person's mind, whether or not this represents the extent and depth of their social network.
Saying, "If you were to get married today, who would be in your wedding party," would be much more likely to actually determine if the core of an individual's friend network has shifted.
"...surveyed 604 people about their friends and again seven years later, and found that only 48 percent of people
ResponderEliminarNot having read the study, the following question comes to mind:
ResponderEliminarIs there a difference between age groups? I would expect higher turnover after 7 years from an 18 year-old leaving high school and going to college than someone aging from say 45 to 52.
Mine turns over less as I get older.
ResponderEliminarWith the rapid change in jobs and places of working, friendships are bound not to be long lasting. People keep on moving around the country, even across the wolrd.
ResponderEliminarSocial networking sites reduce the effort needed to keep in touch with old friends but practically many of these people would not meet each other ever again in their lifetimes even though they can remainvery good online friends. This reduces the issue to one of how one defines friendship - for some just meeting online might be enough, for others chatting some people over the net might not mean anything.
If there is an average, some people must be above and some below, I guess.
ResponderEliminarAt 48 percent, I would question the study's definition of "friendship", though. If distance is a factor, that is not a friend, in my opinion, but merely an acquaintance. The core of my real friends has grown during the years, with very few drop-outs.
Family is not automatically in the friend-category, some are, some aren't.
I make new friends and some fall away, but the core group tends to stick hard. My closest friends have been my friends for at least a decade, with the longest for nearly 30 years.
ResponderEliminarI relocated a year ago, and picked up a couple of new folks in the new location, but the phone (rather than "networking" sites) keeps my old friends close.
"How will social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter affect the rate of friend turnover in the next seven years? "
ResponderEliminarFacebook, emails and twitter make it easier to keep in touch, but I reckon on the whole your facebook/twitter friend list will increase, but your actual "core group" of close friends will remain the same sort of size...
Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.
ResponderEliminarI had a huge party for my 40th birthday with about 70 people. I had a huge party again on my 50th with about the same number. I was the only one at both parties.
ResponderEliminarperhaps I am in the minority, but I still have my high school buddies (somewhere between friends and friendly), my best-friend (my husband). Have recently become re-acquainted with a neighbor friend- from growing up. My oldest and dearest friend- well- that is another story. And then there are people with whom I have been friendly for years--Otherwise, I wish that I could say that I had "new friends." To me, there is a big difference between friendly and friendship. Real friends stay friends. The rest, are like "sands through the hour glass." They come and go.
ResponderEliminarThat seems really wrong to me. In the past 15 years, I've lost some friends (to death, divorce, weird relationships with women who couldn't tolerate me, some friends have become less close, some more close, but my friendship circle overlaps probably 90%. Granted I'm 40, not 20. My circle changed a lot around the end of high school, end of college, end of graduate school. Now that I'm settled in, with a job, a house, kids, and all that, my friends have remained, and I expect them to remain over the next decade as well.
ResponderEliminarFacebook, Twitter, and other social networking tools help to acquire and maintain weak social ties, not close emotional relationships. Rate of turnover in friends circles is largely independent of social networking tools.
ResponderEliminar