Is Social Media killing "friendship?"

In today’s world, we focus more and more on digital tools and social networks to, as the old Bell Systems ad goes “reach out and touch someone.” Email has for the most part usurped the written letter as our primary means of long distance (and not so long distance) 1:1 and 1:few communication; Facebook, and to continuing lesser degree MySpace are becoming the preferred means for keeping in touch with friends and family – even over the mobile and text.

So as a class mate of mine recently queried: “Is social media making us anti-social?” I decided to write briefly on this question in the context of friendship given a recent class discussion on the topic.

The concept of friendship certainly has evolved (or devolved) since ancient times. In William Deresiewicz’s article for The Chronicle entitled Faux Friendship we see that the ancient concept of friendship implied true intimacy between friends, and was a rare commodity. Once found, love and loyalty to a friend was almost supreme. As an example, he cites the friendship between Archilles and Patroclus. Achilles, Greece’s greatest warrior weighs his loyalty to Patroclus beyond his loyalty to Greece itself as demonstrated  when he quits the Trojan war, and chooses to return to battle only after the death of Patroclus, and for the sole purpose of avenging Patroclus’ death.

 With the rise of Christianity, the classical idea of friendship began to weaken (except for a brief resurgence during the renaissance) with the Christian belief intense personal bonds should be discouraged in favor of a “heart… turned to God.” So as Teri questions, is social media furthering the deterioration of the original idea of friendship? Just thinking in terms of Facebook, how has the concept of friendship changed? Some things to consider: the temporal nature of FB friends; willingness to share personal thoughts with our entire FB universe via The Wall; what having 312 FB friends says about our concept of “what a friend” means.

 Leisa Reichelt offers a counterpoint to this perspective with what she coins Ambient Intimacy. Given the nature of this forum, I won’t get into it, but you can read about it on her blog, disambiguity.

[Via http://davewjon.wordpress.com]