HELP FOR THE FAMILY/YOUNG PEOPLE - How to Make Real Friends

THE CHALLENGE

Thanks to technology, you can connect with more people -and do so more conveniently-than at any other time in history.   Still, the relationships you have might seem rather shallow.  One young man put it this way:  "I feel as if my friendships could just fizzle out.  On the other hand, my dad has friends he's been close to for decades!" 

Why is it such a challenge these days to enjoy enduring and meaningful friendships?

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Technology maybe partly to blame. Texting, social networking, and other social media have made it seem possible to maintain a friendship without being in someone's presence. Meaningful conversations have been replaced by rapid-fire texts and tweets.  "People having fewer face-to-face interactions," says the book Artificial Maturity.  "Students spend more time in front of a screen and less time with each other."

In some cases, technology can make friendships seem closer than they really are.  "Recently," says 22-year-old Brian,  "I realized that by texting my friends to see how they were, I was doing a lot of the work.  Then I stopped texting them to see how many of them would take the initiative to contact me.  Honestly, it's been very few. Apparently, some friends weren't as close as I thought."

 But cannot texting and social media help you to keep in touch with people and thereby strengthen your friendship?  Yes-especially if you also have an online relationship with those people. Often, however, social media merely  builds bridges to others without drawing you any closer to them. 

Next time: HELP FOR THE FAMILY /YOUNG PEOPLE - How to Make Real Friends - WHAT YOU CAN DO

From the Awake! magazine