Faux Friendship "Facebook"

                                          Writer (Skyler)

 I agree with "Faux Friendship" by William Deresiewicz overall, in that Facebook has changed the nature of friendship. However, I disagree with Deresiewicz that this change is a completely negative one. In today's world of technology, the invention of Facebook has given all people a way to connect and to stay in touch. Deresiewicz seems to assume that Facebook taken Satan's place and destroyed friendship. However, Facebook was never meant to be a substitution for actual, tangible, friendship. Of course, everyone's views of Facebook are different. I never log into the website with the intention of saying hey to friends or what not. I go on there for humor mostly, but also for vague, superficial updates on friends. If I really wanted to talk with friends and family and see how they are, I would call, or send a text to meet up and have lunch or something. Facebook is not the monster that Deresiewicz believes it to be if one takes it at face value (pun intended). 

Friendship will remain sacred no matter what social networking sites come forth in the next few years, even in the next century. Also, saying that you have to have a limited amount of friends to be very close to them is a little preposterous. You do not have to see friends every day to feel secure in the relationship. When something amazing happens to a person, just as I'm sure it did to Solomon (he became king and all), the first instinct is to call your friend and share the news, and this will not change.  Just because friendship is displayed differently than it was centuries earlier, with Solomon and Jonathan, does not mean that the friendship is any less of a friendship, any less of a bond, any less of a sacred connection. And just because you may know more people, such as the 728 friends on Facebook you probably have not shared any in-depth discussions with, does not mean that you take those people for actual friends. They are memories, and people do not want to let memories go. So they have Facebook for memories, and phones for the friends that they actually care about.

                         Response Writer (Denovia)

"Faux Friendship" by William Deresiewicz was a very interesting excerpt and I fully agree with Deresiewicz about Facebook changing the nature of friendship. While reading the text I decided to check the definitions of faux and friendship.  Faux per Webster means not genuine or real, being an imitation of the original, fake, or false.  Friendship is the state of being friends; friendly relation, or attachment, to a person, or between persons; affection arising from mutual esteem and good will; friendliness; amity; good will.  Deresiewicz described how ancient friendship has evolved over the years "No longer being rare, precious and hard won". 

 When I think about "Facebook Friends" the words used by Deresiewicz, “rare, precious and hard won” do not come to mind. But if I use the term faux (imitation of the original) in conjunction with "Facebook Friends" based on the definitions Deresiewicz argument seems accurate.  Yes Facebook allows us to connect with friends, but this connection is only limited to Facebook, because more than likely most of them would not be invited to diner at our home.  The link below is a youtube video of Greg Benson visiting a few Facebook friends.  The problem is they don’t really know one another they are just Facebook friends.  How would you react if a Facebook friend you hardly knew showed up at your door?

I think Deresiewicz's make a clear point Facebook friendship is a  “Faux Friendship”.  Yes Facebook is much better than having a pen pal, but having hundreds of friends doesn’t allow a person to form a true bond with each individual.  Yet not all Facebook friendships are fake, however if a person has 728 friends more than likely the majority falls into the faux category.
http://youtu.be/LO-1VaR3PPo?t=2m48s