Faux Friendship By William Deresiewicz Summary

The article “Faux friendship”, written by William Deresiewicz, explains the influence social media has had on the structure of friendship over the years. In the article states, that in this day in age friendships are so common and under looked that we are essentially friends with everyone. Deresiewicz believes that, with the introduction of social media sites such as, face book, my space, and twitter, people seem to value the number of “friends” they have rather than the quality of their few intimate friendships. Deresiewicz explains that, in ancient times friendships were drastically different. He applauds friendships like that of Achilles and Patrodus, David and Jonathan, Virgil Nisus and Euryalus stating that they were unordinary, but universal,

He connects the idea of how friendships now, are associated with youth and something we are all meant to grow out of eventually. He continues by stating that, the moral content of classical friendship, which are to improve together, had been lost to a society that is too sensitive to criticism. He adds that the introduction of Facebook and Myspace have ironically destroyed the nature of friendships. He is saddened by that fact that the term friend has been reduced to nothing but a feeling. He pokes fun at the fact that humans don’t like being isolated, so he adds that the internet gives us a false sense of community. He scoffs at posts because they make everything becomes more public and less intimate, which turns an individual into an indistinguishable mass of people. He does gives credit to social media, since they do have their benefits such as, reconnecting long-lost friends while far-flung ones can stay in touch, but he backtracks by stating that people seem more like they are trying to imitate themselves. Lastly he compares positing personal information to pornography, which is slick, impersonal exhibition. He finishes by solemnly stating that friendships have turned into the cold, unfeeling computers we are so used