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Aouda Alawi
Professor Occhipinti
ENG 131-10
1 March 2019
Virtual Friendships Today
Virtual friendships are more present in today’s society than they ever were before. Older
generations might disapprove of the idea of virtual friendships because it’s not traditional. What
they don’t acknowledge is that virtual friendships make it easier to keep in touch with people, it
expands the amount of friends we can maintain, and allows us to connect with people
internationally.
The biggest advantage of virtual friendships is keeping in touch with people that would
normally be hard to meet with. Konnikova says, “What facebook does and why it’s been so
successful in so many ways is it allows you to keep track of people who would otherwise
effectively disappear”(pg.237). People who are constantly busy are able to stay in contact with
everyone through social media without taking much time or effort. With online friendships,
there’s no need to make plans or even leave the house, all that’s needed is an online platform and
an internet connection. It can easily be done while getting other work done because it’s more
easy going than a face-to-face conversation.
A more simple benefit of virtual friendships is that we can keep in touch with more
people daily. Konnikova states in her text that, “As constant use of social media has become the
new normal, however, people have started challenging the continued relevance of Dunbar’s
number: isn’t it easier to have more friends when we have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to
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help us cultivate and maintain them?”(pg. 237). Wikimedia provides a visual representation of
the Dunbar number. Personally, social media has been so useful to...
