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The Meaning of Friendship - An investigation of what it entails to be a friend among young men and women

Yusuf, Maryan LU (2016) SOCK04 20152
Department of Sociology
Abstract
The concept of having friends has been around for centuries. It is a natural part of one’s life and yet, it is not until recently that scientist’s has acknowledged it as a scientific topic. This study aims to investigate what it entails to be a friend today and which types of friendships exists, in contrast to the historical definitions and theoretical discussions addressed in Ray Pahl’s book On Friendship (2000). Two focus group interviews were conducted, with one male and one female group, to find out how the concepts of friendship, acquaintance and best friend are defined today. The concepts on how to become friends together with what impact Facebook has had on friendship today was also discussed in the interviews.
The interviews... (More)
The concept of having friends has been around for centuries. It is a natural part of one’s life and yet, it is not until recently that scientist’s has acknowledged it as a scientific topic. This study aims to investigate what it entails to be a friend today and which types of friendships exists, in contrast to the historical definitions and theoretical discussions addressed in Ray Pahl’s book On Friendship (2000). Two focus group interviews were conducted, with one male and one female group, to find out how the concepts of friendship, acquaintance and best friend are defined today. The concepts on how to become friends together with what impact Facebook has had on friendship today was also discussed in the interviews.
The interviews showed that the core in friendship has maintained similar over the years, but the practice has changed. Women search for an emotional connection to their friends. Someone who will always be there for them and who they can open up to about anything, while the men look for commonalities, whether it being in common values or sharing a joke in a situation. They both however, are founded in finding comfort in another person. It also showed that men are starting to look for more emotional connections, and women more active ones, meaning they are starting to look beyond what it expected of them.
One problem that remains today is the question of whether men and women can be just friends, but the problem now lies in how the people outside of the friendship views them.
It was also evident that the span between acquaintances and friends is quite large, with even more variances in between, mostly because of the mass use of Facebook and the way it has redefined how we maintain our friendships. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Yusuf, Maryan LU
supervisor
organization
course
SOCK04 20152
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Facebook, best friends, friendship, friends, acquaintance
language
English
id
8593661
date added to LUP
2016-03-04 12:08:20
date last changed
2016-03-04 12:08:20
@misc{8593661,
  abstract     = {{The concept of having friends has been around for centuries. It is a natural part of one’s life and yet, it is not until recently that scientist’s has acknowledged it as a scientific topic. This study aims to investigate what it entails to be a friend today and which types of friendships exists, in contrast to the historical definitions and theoretical discussions addressed in Ray Pahl’s book On Friendship (2000). Two focus group interviews were conducted, with one male and one female group, to find out how the concepts of friendship, acquaintance and best friend are defined today. The concepts on how to become friends together with what impact Facebook has had on friendship today was also discussed in the interviews. 
The interviews showed that the core in friendship has maintained similar over the years, but the practice has changed. Women search for an emotional connection to their friends. Someone who will always be there for them and who they can open up to about anything, while the men look for commonalities, whether it being in common values or sharing a joke in a situation. They both however, are founded in finding comfort in another person. It also showed that men are starting to look for more emotional connections, and women more active ones, meaning they are starting to look beyond what it expected of them. 
One problem that remains today is the question of whether men and women can be just friends, but the problem now lies in how the people outside of the friendship views them. 
It was also evident that the span between acquaintances and friends is quite large, with even more variances in between, mostly because of the mass use of Facebook and the way it has redefined how we maintain our friendships.}},
  author       = {{Yusuf, Maryan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Meaning of Friendship - An investigation of what it entails to be a friend among young men and women}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}