Why We’re No Longer Made For True Friendship
The impact of the 21st century on friendship
A few years ago, I decided to conduct an experiment. It probably wasn’t a very mature experiment, but I think it came out of place of feeling like some of my friends didn’t actually really care about me. I was so sick of feeling like I was always the one that made contact, reached out, invited people over and helped out in times of crisis, or at least offered to help.
So, I just stopped contacting a number of people. I stopped ‘popping over,’ calling, texting and inviting. The findings from my clearly unethical experiment were quite devastating because the result was that absolutely nothing happened. No one seemed to notice, no one seemed to care, no one reached out, there was just a deafening silence.
I’m not sure if it’s just me, but over the years I’ve noticed a dramatic shift in the value and prioritization of friendships. Ever since I removed my date of birth from my Facebook profile the number of friends that acknowledge my birthday has gradually waned as I’ve relied on people actually knowing or caring enough to find out when I get a year older.
There was even a year that my husband and kids forgot to wish me a ‘Happy Birthday’ until I mentioned something about it after dinner, but that’s a whole other issue…
