It isn’t just the social media friendships that are thin. So are the “real” ones… but that has been the case for a long time now (actually, the latter was on the trash heap decades before social networking came about). I think over the last two decades the relationship in physical space gets pumped up artificially by shared, meaningless experiences laden with alcohol-infused emotional content, that circumscribe the post-millenial city. In this light it will be interesting to see how the new “localism” will mature into a functioning group paradigm. At least the common interest relationships found on the web provide an outlet from that form of “real” sociability - an escape from the BFF’s and good times, good times that mask the hedonistic nature of so many Gen X and Gen Y relationships.
via Melanie Shelor
