Visual Cultures Essay

I’m not talking about the friends you gossip with at the lunch table. I found Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe. When I met these six characters through my television screen, I discovered something other than my favorite show. I discovered myself...reflected back through each of them.

The traditional idea of American friendship has evolved drastically over time. In this age, no longer do you see the close group of friends chatting at the ‘Central Perk Café’ or engaging in many misadventures in the basement of Foreman’s house, such as they did in ‘That 70’s Show’. The aged image of a group of friends and their wise, perceptive teacher, Mr. Feeney, happily standing in the halls of John Quincy Adams middle school is fading out. This overused 1970’s-1990’s idea of friendship no longer applies to most American friendships today because our culture has swayed into a more modern viewpoint, due to the

There are over six billion people on Earth today. Each of those people has countless relationships, which extend further into an immense network of relations among thousands of individuals. These relations can be romantic, professional, unconditional, mutual, or the strongest of all, friendship. Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more beings. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism.

In the modern age friendship comes in many different shapes and sizes. There's the good and there's the bad. You might even find some types of friendships surprising, for example an "entrepreneurial relationship". In the book "Of Mice and Men" Lennie and George are friends, but not very good friends. George is unfortunately friends with Lennie for the wrong reasons.

The friend that the author Marion Winik thinks is the most important is your Buddies. In Winik’s essay she says “Buddies, for example, are the workhorses of the friendship world” meaning they are the ones

Friendship opens our minds to different views and perspectives and change our perceptions. It has the power to change people’s views on life in a positive way. True friends will do anything to keep their friendship alive, no matter the barriers. Potok proves through the friendship of Danny and Reuven that friendship can be achieved no matter the barriers. He proves that friendship is a key value to life through his motif

Friends is a hit television (tv) show, and has been since 1994 when it first came out. The television show follows the lives of six friends throughout the course of 10 years. Friends is a good tv show despite some people’s opinions. The show was at the top of the charts for the years that it ran, and even more after that. The theme song itself was number 1 for 8 weeks, and after that was still within the top numbers (Billboard Staff, 2015). Even though the show is aimed for a mature audience, it captures the qualities a hit tv show needs. Friends is a good tv show due to the fact that it is a comedy, includes lots of plot twists, and follows one basic storyline.

Have you ever wondered if there is a difference between sitcoms back then and now? This paper is going to compare and contrast the differences between an episode of Full House and an episode of Modern Family. We are able to spot notable differences and similarities by comparing the characters, plot, and setting for both of these sitcoms.

This is because of time passing. Many are interested in the plot continuing, but sometimes the characters people grew up watching are not as relatable. While we would all like to know what the characters of friends are doing, an entire season of them living separately and acting responsibly might not be as interesting as it seems.

“We might say of friendships that they are a matter not of diversion or of return but of meaning,” a closing comment from an article titled “Friendship in the Age of Economics,” by Todd May. In the article, the author uses Aristotle’s thinking on the three types of friendship to discuss how friendships of today are affected by the constant need for productivity that accompanies the modern lifestyle. In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie are two friends. As they travel to find work their friendship is tested by people at the ranch and the situation they find themselves in. As opposed to friends, The Scarlet Ibis, James Hurst, is the story of two brothers.

Evolution of Family Sitcoms “Blood is thicker than water.” A saying commonly heralded by family members in order to reaffirm the importance of family unity. These words spoke loudly to the entertainment industry as they were trying to create new content for television. Situational comedies were quite popular, but there was a lack of relation to family audiences. The most logical step was to combine the two.

Friends is a sitcom which aired on television in 1994 and ended in 2004. It is about six best friends, Chandler, Joey, and Ross, Monica, who is Ross’s brother, Phoebe and Rachel who are living in New York City. Though out the show we see that Monica falls in love with Chandler, and Rachel falls in love with Ross. However, at the beginning of the show we see, Ross and Rachel hook up which causes problems in their relationship. In the last season we see that Ross and Rachel realize that they love each other so they get back together.

Gabler also expresses his thoughts on this issue in his article, "[friendships on tv] what makes this so remarkable is that it has been happening at a time when it is increasingly difficult to find this kind of deep social interaction anyplace but on TV." Granted, this sort of behavior on TV, or on social media can give us unrealistic expectations for our own lives including our interactions with our friends and family. It gives us the expectation that our friends are always around, or that we can always turn to anyone in our family which for some people is not always true. Gabler asks his readers, "How many adults do you know who manage to hang out with their friends every single day for hour after hour?" The answer to that question is simple, none do. It is almost impossible to hang out with friends every day of the week or every hour. We all have lives we need to attend to, and making time with friends can be such a mission because we are all so consumed by our daily

One of the reasons why sitcoms influence pop culture is because viewers incorporate aspects of the show into their personal lives. Most Friends fans can admit to incorporating elements from the show into their lives through either quotes, mannerisms, or styles. In fact, Friends has influenced several parts of society as a whole. When the show originally

Aristotle's first element is Plot which requires to have the whole, complete, and magnitude. In the first episode of season 1: The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate, the storyline starts out with Monica meeting her old high school best friend Rachel. And since Rachel was having some personal life problems, she ends up moving in with Monica and stays as her best friend till the end of the show. The whole of the show is Monica and Rachel’s relationship from the beginning till the end has stayed the same. Although eventually Rachel had to move out of Monica’s apartment, their friendship still continued on and is considered to be stronger compared to the beginning of their meeting. The complete which is also known as the unity of action was displayed because when the two girls were having problems, both were able to solve and help out each other. They were able to put each other as their main priority and showing each other the attention they need. And the magnitude is absolutely present because although it was quite abrupt with Rachel is moving in with Monica, but as the story went on. Everything was relevant to all the other characters: Chandler, Joey, Ross, and Phoebe. Which show the whole purpose of the show, friends are meant to stay together till the end, even though they all had problems with one another at one certain point, but were still able to move past and have a stronger, inseparable bond throughout the whole sitcom series.