Less Is More In Friendship!
Friendship is often confused with networking in today’s world, acquaintances are synonymous to friends, a like or comment on Facebook is enough to qualify as a buddy. We have different sets of friends for different reasons. We have work crews, drink buddies, coffee gangs, friends in whom we confide and more. In an article by the New Yorker, titled ‘Limits of Friendship’, Robin Dunbar states we have around hundred and fifty casual friends, people you’d invite to a large party. Drilling it down, he came up with a number of fifty close friends whom you’d call for group dinners, people you see often but cannot call them true intimates. Then there is a circle of fifteen you can turn to for sympathy, whom you can confide in when needed. Dunbar states there are five in your close support group who qualify as your best friends. He also states that the group number is mostly stable, however the composition keeps changing. People drift between the layers and some fall out.
Friendship and love are our social needs that complete us. We must, therefore, keep a check on our priorities and be more with those who matter, who are less likely to fall out. I recall the time Irina went on an adventure tour and made many friends there. Once she came back, invites by our core group were turned down for dinners and movie dates with them. Many of us were upset by this, but I knew that with the progress of time she will return to where she belongs. Now, it is difficult for her to put a name to the faces she went out with. Read More |
