Is there a Big Difference between a
20th Century Friend and a 21st Century Friend?
CURRICULUM: Responsibility to Others: Your Inner Circle
Summary: In the 20th century, friends lived and worked near one another, communicated by letters, telephone and in-person. In the 21st century, each of us may claim more digitally-connected friends, but many people wonder about the depth and quality of these relationships. These questions live in the heart and soul of personal and social wellness--and the future of friendship.
Basic Understanding:
1. What are the basic, unwritten rules/requirements of a friendship?
2. What are the methods in which one acquires new friendships?
1. How are those friendships maintained?
Issues:
1. Changes over time of methods of interacting with friends in-person
2. Changes over time of methods of interacting with friends long-distance
1. The impact of new technology on traditional geographic limits of friendships
Open Questions:
1. What makes a friend?
2. Are modern technologies bastardizing the true meaning of friendship?
3. Is there any potential long-term harm in the changing meaning of “friendship?”
4. Do modern friendships actually carry more meaning than those of the past?
Conversation Pit: Possible Topics
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“A Life on Facebook”— visual representation of how the average young person’s life would play out on Facebook, from first joining as a young adult until death.
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“The Innovation of Loneliness”— an animation that details the average human’s ability to maintain close contact with, at most, 150 people, and how increased use of social media may lead to internal conflict as a person’s virtual friend count grows.
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“A Friendship Beyond Language” —This news report tells of a couple who befriended an older woman living in the same apartment building without speaking the same language.
Notebook Contents
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Friendshifts: The Power of Friendship and How It Shapes Our Lives by Jan Yeager
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Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being by Marty Seligman
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Friendship by Franceso Alberoni
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Examples of Web Assets
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What Is A Friend?[1]
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What Is Friendship?[2]
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The Innovation of Loneliness[3] What is the connection between social networks and being lonely?
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Scholars, Experts, Books, Other Sources
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Sherry Turkle – Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. Author of several books including Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.
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Senior executive, individual users, Facebook
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Creative / Educational Opportunities
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Interviews with short- and long-time friends (ordinary people) of many ages and backgrounds
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Mapping friendship data - using our own (and acquired) information to comprehend trends in our own lives, individually and collectively
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZHmsVRshwU
[2] http://friendship.about.com/od/Types_of_Friendships/a/What-Is-Friendship.htm