Discovering meaning through friendship lens

“What is the friend? One soul in two bodies.” This quote is attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who was widely written about a real idea and importance Friendship As a specification Significant Living.

Aristotle’s perspective about friendship contrasts with what can be seen in the postmodern world today. Looking, for example, 2010 movie Social Network About the founding of the famous Internet Social networks Facebook. With the movie propaganda The brand line, “Do not get 500 million friends without making some enemies,” you have to ask about the definition of “friends” in this type of social media context. While you see the relationships shown in the film, especially between the founder Mark Zuckerberg and his network friendsObviously, they do not meet the quality standards that Aristotle adopted!

In the film, Zuckerberg and his favorite friend Eduardo Safin, a Facebook co -founder, are involved in sufficient battles, including a bad legal battle, to prove that there is no single residence in their bodies. The idea of “friend” is of course used loosely in the online Facebook world.

What do you think that Aristotle will say about the meaning of chance – and the path to – which came to encourage the new millennium? Have we gone away in our endeavor to contact others in a world that has become increasingly separate even if it is supposed to be “flat”?¹

While the technology -driven hyperconnectivity does not know any limits, what is happening for true friendship? Do you die? Or is it different Social media “Platforms”, such as Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok, simply redefine or transform the idea of modern friendship? If so, what are the effects of life as we know it on this planet? Will we be happier? Will it enhance the type of existence that Aristotle was looking for and adopted?

In fact, from this a meaning-Perspective focuses, where is friendship fit? And how “progress” can affect the social media that I refer here, directly and indirectly, the nature of friendships between people, and most importantly, The human pursuit of meaning?

I certainly have more questions than the answers, although there are some directions that are worth mentioning on this topic. For example, the British psychotherapist Mark Vernon, in an article published in USA todayThe issue of the impact of social media dealt with and concluded, “Just as our daily life has become technologically more related, we are losing other more feasible relationships. Yes, we lose our friends.”²

In other words, real human communication joys are replaced by electronic stimuli and “shallow” friendships, that is, they are, Social links Instead of the type of real friendships described and adopted by Aristotle. In our postmodern society, there is evidence that although we have a lot of knowledge, more and more of us have a few individuals that we can manage, share our authentic self, and deep treatment.

Moreover, according to the research published in American social reviewAnd a professional magazine with a very good reputation, for ordinary Americans only close friends, and about 25 % have no friends.³ We are not only “Bowling alone”, to borrow the title from a book from sociologist Robert Putnam; We live effectively in the midst of a world connected to the social network! Now how ridiculous it is?

Aristotle once asked his Ethnic colleagues, “Who will live without friends even if they have everything else?” More importantly, intimate friends believed to have been superior to any material property that one might have. Stop and think for a moment about the quality of friends that we may make online, such as via Facebook, and compare the quality of relationships with other types of friends who have actual face-to-face-to-face-rare, associated, social, intimate, or perhaps love. Any of these communications represent meaningful relationships, by pressing, TRUE Friendships? Which of these connections, when everything is said and done, really care? In addition to feeding your soul, can you feel a single spirit in two bodies?

In his classic work Professional ethicsAristotle also presented the following. wisdom: “The desire for friendship comes quickly. Friendship does not.” This is a very profound and possibly provocative statement, especially given the powerful forces behind social networks. It takes some time and effort to build real friendships, the relationships that are able and ready to reveal yourself – your authentic thoughts, their intimate feelings, and sensitive weaknesses, including fears.

Although social communication on Facebook may be just a click, the cultivation of true friendship is not that easy or direct if you believe in Aristotle’s advice.

I realize that in the world of crowded and rapid today, many people are likely to tell their hopes, problems with bondage, taxi drivers, hair musicians and healers more than people who are regularly in their lives. In my opinion, this is a sad comment on the postmodern society, it seems that many people have moved away from real friendships and a sense of “society” and they now live very special, even Lonelylife. It is time to revive the meaning and value of authentic relationships with others. It’s time to re -focus on friendships and allow them to prosper Significant Methods, whether in our personal or work.⁴

“The friend is the same,” Aristotle also told us. Real friendships are not just a manifestation of what is called “social communication” in the language of social media. No, real friendships are the key to a prosperous and meaningful life, well -being, society and a truly associated world.