Faux Friendship Analysis

Having a thousand friends can be manageable, yet impossible to others. When Myspace was introduced in 2003, it dominated the internet with instant messaging. Now keeping in touch with friends and family is easier than ever. Silver’s article “The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships” suggests that the Dunbar’s theory doesn't represent the number of friends you can maintain, “I think that is a false assertion of Dunbar's number and doesn't take into account the constant shifting nature of social networks. Not only that, but Dunbar's number was developed using personal, physical relationships rather than online ones. Online relationships are a different beast” (Silver, 5). Now in 2017 we have different media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr.

In the last ten to fifteen years accompanying the dawn of social media, means of communication among friends and strangers have been easier than ever. Since its creation in 2004, Facebook has grown into the largest social media site on the Internet with 30 million users and counting. The ability to catch up with former high school friends who are now across the country or see how an aunt in Pittsburgh has been doing since the birth of her son are now as simple as the click of a mouse. However, the amount of “friends” acquired on social media may not be an accurate reflection of how many close relationships one truly shares. In an article from Bigthink.com titled “Do You Have Too Many Facebook Friends?”, Steven Mazie gathers research from Pew Research Center about statistics surrounding Facebook

In Faux Friendship, by William Deresiewicz, his argument is that friendships in today’s time are different from earlier times. He argues in his essay that social media websites have destroyed our chances of having real friendships. Also, he claims that technology in general is making us stray away from the actual time it we can spend with real friends. We believe that having more Facebook friends makes us feel good about the number of friends we have. Are these truly our friends?

In Stephen Marche’s article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” points out many reasons to which social media is making us lonely. One reason why social media is making us lonely is because we are so focused on the internet and we forget what is going on around us. Another reason is because we can see how our friends on Facebook are having a great life and we become lonely because our life is not as interesting as theirs. Even though I disagree with the author’s conclusion that social media is making us lonely, there is ample evidence to support my belief that the internet can also be a tool for communication.

Maria Konnikova, a New York Times best-selling author, is known for contributing scientific and psychological factors into her works, which has been published on several online publications such as Salon, the Atlantic, the New Republic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, etc. (Konnikova 235). In her essay “Limits of Friendship”, she goes into depth about the number of friends that one can have overall based off Robin Dunbar theory and how technology is impacting not only his theory, but our social lives also. Based on Robin Dunbar research, he believes that a typical individual has one hundred and fifty people in their social group in which he differentiates in his “rule of three”. As technology advances, the way individuals interact with one another is through social media and their smart devices, but we’re slowly losing our focus on how to socialize with one another. Technology is making it easier to build relationships with those around the world, but harder with those around us.

Maria Konnikova's essay "The Limits of Friendship," analyzes the impact of social media on close relationships, addressing the people impacted by social media use. This essay published in The New Yorker, a weekly magazine with scholarly authors, to inform the public on social media's impact on our lives. She finds that social media has created a dependency on technology and online interactions. Konnikova strives to inform that social media is decreasing close relationships, and persuades that it will impact our future. She argues on the impact of increased dependency on social media on the Dunbar number, hindering the development of future generations. Konnikova succeeds using strong logic and scientific reason as well as appealing to emotions; however, she fails to prove her credibility over the topic and instead relies on the credibility of Robin Dunbar.

Before this generation we would immerse ourselves in relationships. Now, could you say that all your Facebook friends are your actual friends? Sometimes all we need is a hug from someone that we have a genuine relationship with. People wouldn’t be able to get that if they constantly use their phones to become “social” they will never amount to their true potential in relationships. Bryce Skylar a writer for People’s World says, “The problem, it appears, is that social media has infiltrated every aspect of daily life”. When you put down your phone, you will create an endless opportunity to gain organic relationships.

It has come to the point with social media, that humans are not actually making friends to be close buddie, but to have a bunch of them so much that it has come to the fact that it is like they are “collecting” friends for the fun of it. This means that instead of connecting with each other and making new companions from all over the world, it is now such as a game to see who can collect or receive the most friends, which is making connecting as best friends harder to do these days and eventually associates will become so disconnected that they stop being peers. Also instead of using the word friends as a noun, like it should be used, it is now being used as a verb, thanks to many different social media platforms. Such as adding a friend on Facebook. This shows that using the word friend is not as meaningful because it is now used as a verb. An action that people can do, such as friend someone. It is not their actual friend, yet someone they have just added to a collection of other people, showing that human beings as a race are becoming increasingly more disconnected from each other at are not relating or socializing in a public area. Being called a friend is not as special as it use to be before technology companies made more

Draft of English Argument/Research Essay Serin Kim Period 4 A prevalent issue regarding social media and interactions exists between researchers and social network users. Social media is currently changing how relationships between people are created. Relationships can exist through people across the world through social media and can produce more emotional bonds with friends that you can see everyday. On the other hand, social media also could present conflicts due to the fact that some of these relationships can become unhealthy and that people could change to be more dependent on internet friends, becoming introverted.

In “The Limits of Friendship” by Maria Konnikova, social media has significantly changed the way we interact with friends and family. Everybody thinks that using social media is the best way to talk to friends and family, however, in my opinion, they are wrong because it doesn’t give you the face-to-face connections we need as humans for social interaction. On the other hand, the great thing about using social media is you can connect with more people, but in a superficial kind of way. Therefore, we do not get the face-to-face interactions with our friends and family. We, the people that are addicted to social media, learn that without face-to-face conversations we wouldn’t have a normal “social” life outside of social media. The question

In Stephen Marche article “Is Facebook making us lonely?” the author explores the effect of technology and Facebook, specifically social media, on people’s lives. One of Marche’s main points is that the technology has become more advanced. In just one click of the button we can find out what is

Authentic and genuine friendships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are a powerful symbol of reconciliation for all Australians. While creating these friendships can be challenging, the benefits they provide outweigh the struggles. The largest of these challenges being racial discrimination towards Indigenous Australians. Authentic friendships seem unlikely when we look at Australia’s actions towards Indigenous peoples in the past. It has been a long journey for Indigenous and non-Indigenous friendships as only a few decades ago they were shameful and almost impossible to form. Though these friendships seem unachievable, people have looked past skin colour and created inter-racial friendships that have produced astounding rewards.

Likely friends One by one Natalie, Anahi, Kasey, and Jessica all made their way into the sweltering classroom on August 22nd. At first the girls struggled to find commonalities between them, but after some light conversing and the introduction exercise, the girls were all shocked to learn that despite their vast differences all the girls shared common interests and dreams that would allow them to work well in this group and succeed in Composition I.

Unfriended Starring: Shelley Hennig, Renee Olstead, Matthew Bohrer, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki Unexpectedly unnerving, but unlikely to be remembered with the same fondness as the films that so clearly inspired it

Social media improves the way people communicate with others. It allows them to meet new people. At the click of a button, millions of strangers all over the world who would have never met otherwise are able to connect with each other. Many people believe that internet friends are not as valuable as real life friendships. However with websites like “skype” and instant messaging sites, long distance friendships can be as intimate as real life friendships because social media allows friends to see each other face to face and spend quality time together whenever they want to. Because of this, internet friendships should no longer be considered taboo and should be seen as normal human relationships, “It’s entirely possible to have hundreds of