Veri Amit-Talai's The Waltz Of Sociability

In “The Waltz of Sociability: Intimacy, Dislocation, and Friendship in a Quebec High School,” Vered Amit-Talai explores the dynamics of adolescent friendships and the common phenomenon that “fewer people live out their adulthood with their childhood friends” (Amit-Talai, 233). Amit-Talai conducted a study of a group of students at Raven Haven in Quebec where she focused on various aspects that influence friendships. However with increasing mobility, commitment to friendships can be a difficult task as the social relationship is continuously disturbed. Although these relationships are not long-lived, as people move on to new relationships, they are vital in shaping the individual. Amit-Talai questions “the cultural implications of the presumption

The issue that many adolescents face is the amount of time to spend with each person and when to spend that time with them. Many times, seeing friends outside of school can also be an issue for adolescents due to strict and overprotective parents, so for many, lunch time at school was the only opportunity that they could get. However, free time is limited in an institutional setting, forcing students to go through the pressure of having to choose between managing old friendships or spending time with new ones. As seen in the students at Raven Haven, this choice was one that required much thought as it could disrupt existing friendships. For example, Marina rarely socialized with her friends outside of school, knowingly angering Isabelle, while the other three would make an effort to do so (Amit-Talai, 244). As found throughout, Amit-Talai’s study, the organizational structure has the most impact on a friendship during the adolescent

Ultimately, friendship is a expendable luxury. With the world continuously changing to recompose social networks, it is necessary to make adjustments to friendship due important obligations such as work and school. In this way, the dislocation of personal relationships has become a norm in society. With her findings, Amit-Talai focuses on Roger Keesing’s belief that “the severance of social relations as a consequence of increasing mobility” (Amit-Talai, 250). However she does not disprove the notion, Amit-Talai states movement maybe a possibility, but relationships break due to the natural progressions of