Veri Amit-Talai's The Waltz Of Sociability

1041 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of friendship

In “The Waltz of Sociability: Intimacy, Dislocation, and Friendship in a Quebec High School,” Vered Amit-Talai explores the dynamics of adolescent friendships and the common phenomenon that “fewer people live out their adulthood with their childhood friends” (Amit-Talai, 233). Amit-Talai conducted a study of a group of students at Raven Haven in Quebec where she focused on various aspects that influence friendships. However with increasing mobility, commitment to friendships can be a difficult task as the social relationship is continuously disturbed. Although these relationships are not long-lived, as people move on to new relationships, they are vital in shaping the individual. Amit-Talai questions “the cultural implications of the presumption …show more content…

The issue that many adolescents face is the amount of time to spend with each person and when to spend that time with them. Many times, seeing friends outside of school can also be an issue for adolescents due to strict and overprotective parents, so for many, lunch time at school was the only opportunity that they could get. However, free time is limited in an institutional setting, forcing students to go through the pressure of having to choose between managing old friendships or spending time with new ones. As seen in the students at Raven Haven, this choice was one that required much thought as it could disrupt existing friendships. For example, Marina rarely socialized with her friends outside of school, knowingly angering Isabelle, while the other three would make an effort to do so (Amit-Talai, 244). As found throughout, Amit-Talai’s study, the organizational structure has the most impact on a friendship during the adolescent …show more content…

Ultimately, friendship is a expendable luxury. With the world continuously changing to recompose social networks, it is necessary to make adjustments to friendship due important obligations such as work and school. In this way, the dislocation of personal relationships has become a norm in society. With her findings, Amit-Talai focuses on Roger Keesing’s belief that “the severance of social relations as a consequence of increasing mobility” (Amit-Talai, 250). However she does not disprove the notion, Amit-Talai states movement maybe a possibility, but relationships break due to the natural progressions of

Show More
Related

  • The Theme Of Friendship In Munro's 'The Open Window'

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    He mentions many everyday examples that tie back to his main idea of decaying friendship. He states that there is no greater disappointment than to meet an old friend and discover how they have changed. He thoroughly explains how the overall renovation of friendship is basically hopeless, and how one should try to keep his friends close in order to remain joyful. Lastly, he reminds us of the greatest novelty in the world, the gift of friendship, and the lengths we need to achieve in order to keep it.

    Read More

  • Erick Erickson's Development Theory

    949 Words  | 2 Pages

    Erick Erickson developmental theory is one of the most influential theories in human development. His stages of development elaborate on ambiguous developmental period in which he characterizes conflict of Intimacy vs. Isolation in young adult, Generativity vs Stagnation in middle adulthood and Integrity vs. Despair in late adulthood (Schwartz, 2001). Erickson’s developmental stages theory paves the way for in-depth research on social developmental changes that occurred from young adulthood (18-25), middle adulthood (26-39), to late adulthood (40-67). In his developmental research on social relationships, Berndt (2002) found that friendships vary in term of quality, stability, intimacy and number. These changes are link to socioemotional selectivity theory, which explains how across the lifespan, individuals gradually interact with fewer people as they deliberately withdraw from social contact in peripheral relationship, while maintaining or increasing involvement in relationships with

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Mindy Kaling

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because of this, Steve Duck of University of Iowa refers to women’s studies as “understudied relationships” (Duck 1). In his book, Under-Studied Relationships: Off the Beaten Track, Steve delves into the complicated world that is friendship between women. He reveals that even the best of relationships, more often than not, will “dissolve due to geographical distance”, especially during the transition from high school to college (133). However, Duck claims that this occurrence during young adult transitional periods is “more detrimental to male friendships than female friendships” (133). He explains that, “men’s inability to maintain distal friends may be due to a lack of awareness about and skills to utilize effective strategies that maintain a [friendship]” (184). This argument implies that though males are invested in their friendships, they do not express as much emotional interest in these relationships as their female counterparts. While distance may seem challenging for women to overcome, they collectively put more effort into preserving their friendships than men. Duck further instills this concept by explaining that “women’s same-sex friendships tend to be based more on intimate and emotional discussions than men’s” (186). Men, Duck argues, lack the depth in their friendships that women possess, and, for this reason, have difficulty sustaining a friendship that is met with the strain

    Read More

  • Erickson's Developmental Stages: Transformation through Adulthood

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    For instance, one of the most influential theories in human development is Erick Erickson’s developmental theory, in which he separated human development in stages. His stages of development encompassed about ambiguous developmental period that he characterized as the conflict of Intimacy vs. Isolation in young adult, Generativity vs Stagnation in middle adulthood and Integrity vs. Despair in late adulthood (Schwartz, 2001). Erickson’s developmental stages theory paves the way for in-depth research on social developmental changes that occurred from young adulthood (18-25), middle adulthood (26-39), to late adulthood (40-67). In his developmental research on social relationships, Berndt (2002) found that friendships vary in term of quality, stability,

    Read More

  • Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    From a young age most people have gone through many relationships with other people who were not their family. Thus, we often acknowledge these relationships as friendships. But the word friend is too broad, so people categorize their friends to several types. In her book “Necessary Losses: The Lovers, Illusions, Dependencies and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow”, Judith Viorst divided friendships to six types. Those are convenience friends, special Interest friends, historical friends, crossroad friends, cross-generation friends and close friends. In my life, I have been friend with many people since I was little. Although I have met all six kinds of friend of Viorst, convenience friends and close friends are two important kinds of friends in my life.

    Read More

  • PSA Analysis

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    Peer groups are different in characteristic and require a customized approach. Nonetheless, at the heart of youths is an intense energy that yearns to connect and explore the surrounding (Goold 435). This makes it easier for the youth to engage in improper habits that have dire repercussions.

    Read More

  • Essay On Atrophy Social Life

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first influential factor to the atrophy of social life that Eitzen writes about is moving away. Americans nowadays are always on the go – if moving is the most convenient idea, they will move with no regard to formed relationships that will soon be broken. People are often forced to move in order to follow a job or because of problems within the family. Constantly moving about causes a decline in intimate relationships. This is also true in people who live alone. The lack of regular and reliable social interaction can lead to a less sociable personality and less motivation to form real relationships. Real relationships are what lead to a healthy social life.

    Read More

  • Perry Patetic: The Mobile Society

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    People are constantly moving in our fast-paced society and the connections between people are constantly tested. Perry Patetic, in his excerpt, claims that the mobile society people now live in creates a lack of close relationships in the younger generations. The author supports his position by first appealing to the audience’s emotions by bringing their families into his argument. He continues by providing examples of real life to back his assertation. The author’s purpose is to persuade people so that they feel guilty for becoming distant from their loved ones. The author establishes sincere tone for younger age people who might be thinking about moving or getting away from those close to them.

    Read More

  • Classification Essay

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to a study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science journal, researchers have found that much of a young person’s personality is formed as early as first grade. It is fascinating how important these formative years are to a person’s future life. If our personality and perspective on life is formed by such a young age, it should then be understood that those people closest to us are the ones framing our perspective on life. These perspectives follow us throughout much of our adolescence and even into adulthood. How fitting it seems then, that the categories we find many of our friends fall into appear to be affected by the attention, or lack thereof, received at home at an early age. As I look back at my group of friends from high school, it is clear that we all had someone in our lives were trying to please. The only real difference appears to be the way we went about getting the approval we so desperately desired.

    Read More

  • Friendship By Aristotle: The Three Levels Of Friendship

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    Naturally, human beings are social beings and cannot live without friends. Friendship is an essential part of the structure of human existence. Today’s people are seeking and participating in relationships because they believe that it is good to have friends so as to experience pleasure, to be honored, to be healthy, and to prosper in life. Even in the inferior kind of friendships, people cooperate for the common advantage or pleasure. Irrespective of qualifications, career, personal perspectives, cultural differences, and interests, all people seek for love and acknowledgement from others (Curzer, 2012). This means that at a particular time, every individual will seek for a friendship, whether based on utility, pleasure, or even virtuous

    Read More

  • Peer Pressure and Adolescent Delinquency

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    This longitudinal perspective opens up the possibility that the peer social environment is one that is dynamic. Friendships can be added and terminated resulting in the number of friends reported changes from childhood into and through adolescence. Children moving from intimate elementary classroom settings into a broader age range of adolescents in junior high and high school increases the potential for developing friendships with older adolescents. At the same time, the quality of the relationships with these friends may also be changing. Adolescent relationships are becoming more intimate than those of childhood with the sharing of intimate feelings and being aware of the needs of others becoming a prominent feature of friendship during adolescence.

    Read More

  • Interpersonal Relationship: Positive, And Personal Relationships

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    Relationships, especially close and trusting relationships, are very important for the positive, social and psychological growth of the individuals involved in the relationship. In our world, people in close relationships desire physical contact, emotional support, acceptance, and love. These traits and feelings are part of human nature, and people strive for these types of interpersonal relationships in order to fulfill the void in people’s lives and, above all, to make sense of live through trust, sharing, and caring. During my high school experience, I have met many interesting people in the classroom, as well as in sporting events. I made many new friends in sporting events and during school. Although none of these relationship ever turned into an intimate relationship, each relationship had different turning points. Mark Knapp suggest that interpersonal relationships develop through several stages. My relationship with my best friend, Sisalee, has gone through the coming together stages initiating, experimenting, intensifying, and integrating.

    Read More

  • Graduation Speech: Thank You!

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    While our parents help and support us while growing, our friends will grow with us. These valuable attachments are cherished and needed, and their emotional embrace will always comfort us. With these friends we enter the world of education, our basis to survive in the outside world.

    Read More

  • The Most Important Decisions In My Life

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    As I reach the seemingly boring age of 19, I am able to look back and reflect on how my choices in the past have gotten me to where I am today. One of the most significant decisions I have made in my life was to minimize my friend group. Now, losing friends is something you hear about before you even hit junior high. The common phrase is repeated over and over again, when referring to high school, “You find out who your real friends are.” As a scrawny little freshman, with no sense of reality, I refused to believe that that phrase would ever apply to my life. The end of my sophomore year is when my then, sixteen-year-old self, realized that that overused phrase was more relevant to my life than I wanted it to be. So I did something about it.

    Read More

  • Technology and Human Relations:

    1307 Words  | 3 Pages

    Consider a situation where a family is sitting at the dining table, the son pull out his iPhone, connects to Wi-Fi, and starts chatting with his friends on “Facebook”. The father has a Samsung Galaxy S4 in his hands and he is reading the newspaper online and using “Whatsapp” messenger while having his meal. The mother is busy texting her friends. They are all “socializing” but none of them has spoken as much as a single word to each other. This situation can be commonly seen nowadays. Technology has brought us closer and squeezed the distances but in reality, it has taken us away from each other. The rapid growth of technology has brought about significant changes in human lives, especially in their relationships. The latest technologies have turned this world into a “global village” but the way humans interact with each other, the types of relations and their importance has changed a lot. The advancement in technology has brought us close but has also taken us apart.

    Read More

More about Veri Amit-Talai's The Waltz Of Sociability

Open Document