In the Media – On ending virtual friendships (Salon)
October 6, 2014
Journalist Mary Mann recently wrote a fascinating essay in Salon, entitled: Gone from our real lives but haunting our virtual ones: How friendships end in the instagram age. It discusses on how virtual friendships (those made on social media) may help redefine the rules about real ones.
She writes:
Maybe there is a boon to post-friendship social media, better than a world in which we simply refuse to cross the street—the amorphous “we’re not friends right now and I don’t know if we will be but that doesn’t mean I’m pissed at you or that you’re a bad person” that a simple click on the heart icon might convey.
Mann also mentions reading The Friendship Blog late one night:
“What’s wrong with me?” and “What’s wrong with her?” sum up most comments on The Friendship Blog, an advice site run by psychologist Dr. Irene S. Levine, who wrote the book on friendship termination: “Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend.” According to Levine, there’s not necessarily anything wrong with either party if a friendship ends. After sending out surveys and conducting interviews, she found that “contrary to myth, the large majority of friendships—even very good ones—fall apart over time.”
Click here to read the Salon article in its entirety.
Category: IN THE MEDIA
