> My own friend circle has shrunk about 90% since I quit social media, and it's not just because everyone else is on social media. Everyone has a phone. The problem is people don't care.
Sorry to be blunt, but I think if one leaves social media and sees their friend circle shrink, I've got bad (or maybe good) news for them: Those people weren't really your friends.
Part of the problem is with how we define "friends" now. A friend used to be someone who you could ask for advice on a very personal issue, borrow a tool from, someone who could watch your kids while you were gone, someone who will visit you if you're sick and dying. Today, "friend" has morphed into this nebulous thing: one of five thousand usernames of people (or bots) in a Social Media database, who simply chose to click a "follow" button. The corruption of the meaning of the word "friend" was the biggest casualty of social media. It's now this abstraction that may or may not have anything to do with friendship. A Social Media Friend doesn't even necessarily like you, and you don't even necessarily like them.
How many of those abstract friend-like entities in that Facebook list would give you an actual old-school phone call or snail-mail if you were dying of cancer? Those are your real friends. The rest of those people are merely entries in a database that we increasingly confuse for a social circle.
Afaik, in English friend was always anyone you was at good terms with. "This is my friend, John" never implied super close relationship. It could be a guy from high school you haven't seen 7 years.
The other thing is that people organize tool borrowing and mutual help on social media now. Even close knit groups who helps each other a lot do it there. When you leave social media, you also left group. Just like in old times not showing up anymore in that common tavern meant leaving the group.
Sorry to be blunt, but I think if one leaves social media and sees their friend circle shrink, I've got bad (or maybe good) news for them: Those people weren't really your friends.
Part of the problem is with how we define "friends" now. A friend used to be someone who you could ask for advice on a very personal issue, borrow a tool from, someone who could watch your kids while you were gone, someone who will visit you if you're sick and dying. Today, "friend" has morphed into this nebulous thing: one of five thousand usernames of people (or bots) in a Social Media database, who simply chose to click a "follow" button. The corruption of the meaning of the word "friend" was the biggest casualty of social media. It's now this abstraction that may or may not have anything to do with friendship. A Social Media Friend doesn't even necessarily like you, and you don't even necessarily like them.
How many of those abstract friend-like entities in that Facebook list would give you an actual old-school phone call or snail-mail if you were dying of cancer? Those are your real friends. The rest of those people are merely entries in a database that we increasingly confuse for a social circle.