Essay On Authentic Friends

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Recommended: Webster dictionary definition of friendship

Social media networks make it very easy to socialize with all of your friends, at once, however how many of those “friends” are authentic? Friends have the ability to be classified into four categorizes: true, convenient, special interest, and historical friends. The meaning of the word friend can vary, however Webster’s definition of a friend is a person who is attached to another by means of affection. A friend can be someone in which your lives have crossed paths. Rebecca McGuire- Sneickus and Nigel Holt contend, “[f]riends are a source of personal enrichment and growth” (12). They go on to explain how the evolutionary anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, states that 150 is the largest number of people whom you can share trust and obligations with- Dunbar’s number (3). This means that all of your 438 friends on Facebook cannot be authentic friends. An authentic friendship involves people who love, care and respect one another. …show more content…

A convenient friend is someone who you are generally around, and so it is preferred to be friendly and occasionally associate with him or her. An example of convenient friends can be your high school peers. They are convenient friends due to the fact that they were with you everyday for many years, and yet as soon as one graduated, they aren’t likely to interact with you anymore. In my personal experience, I had many friends whom I went to elementary school and then to high school with. I knew some of them for over ten years and yet since we have all graduated and went to separate schools, I have not heard from any of them once. They were convenient friends at the time, but once we parted and there was no longer something tying us together, we may not associate anymore. The majority of convenient friends are just useful at a time, but aren’t likely true

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